


To Survive And Prosper

by TheRadeBlunner



Series: The Jaune Archive [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Deconstruction, Diary/Journal, Documentation, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Implied Relationships, Minor Satire, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, POV First Person, Slow Burn, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2019-08-07 19:30:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 178,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16414547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRadeBlunner/pseuds/TheRadeBlunner
Summary: This is the story of Jaune Arc, The Hero of Remnant. An esteemed legend among the people of Remnant whose exploits have been told for years. He's a symbol of hope and justice to the righteous, while his name strikes fear into the hearts of evil men. Remnant never deserved a hero so brave, strong and handsome.Unfortunately for him... he didn't ask for any of this.The truth is, he never wanted to be a hero, much less become a Huntsman. That didn't stop him from getting forced into Beacon. Now he has to lie, deceive and cower his way out of danger. All while somehow becoming one of the most celebrated students in the academy.But is he really as bad as he think he is?A Dark-Comedy/Adventure retelling of RWBY in the vein of the Ciaphas Cain series of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.





	1. The Beginning of An Arc

**Author's Note:**

> This fic came from an idea after reading a few Ciaphas Cain novels and works inspired by it, such as Accidental Hero of the Galaxy (Mass Effect, FF) and Sasuke Uchiha, Hero of Konoha (Naruto, SB). I enjoyed the premise of a cowardly and self-deprecating protagonist who goes through hell and comes back hailed as a hero - whether their intentions were genuine or not, and have their confessional memoirs be edited by a close friend or a significant other, and have them provide commentary throughout the writings.
> 
> This was originally published in FF.net around August 2, 2018. I have been planning on making an AO3 mirror for a while, but I thought I wanted to finish the first arc (Chapters that cover Volume 1 of the show) first before doing so. Now it is done and the first chapter of the second arc is published, and that there were reports of hacking and exploits around FF.net (which was supposedly fixed by now according to some), now may be the right time.
> 
> This is also my first serious fanfic, and by serious - I mean that it's not some non-published nonsense I wrote for kicks. While I did my best, I don't deny that there's room for improvement, so don't hesitate to provide some feedback.

 

* * *

**_Editorial Note:_ **

_It's been years after the Fall of Salem. Remnant met a golden age of peace. Grimm activity is at its lowest and civilizations affected have recovered, all thanks to the brave heroes who risked their lives to save the world they live in. Their stories are still being told to this day. Among these stories, in particular, stand out more than the others._

_Jaune Arc, The Hero of Remnant. The 8th child and only son of Caiaphas and Ambervale Arc. A simple boy from a lineage of heroes, who not only lives up to his ancestor's legacy but became one of the greatest in history. His exploits are detailed in his published memoirs: "The Bane of Salem: A Knight's Tale" which was co-written by his eldest sister, Bleu Arc. While I can confirm that stories about him are indeed true, since I was present when it all occurred, they were usually presented inaccurately and are often embellished that they diverge from the truth._

_I cannot say that I blame him, Jaune was simply a man with no control over the thoughts of people and chose to embrace their depiction of him because of his inability to convince them otherwise, and out of fear of being disgraced. Despite his genuinely remarkable feats, he never felt deserving of his own praise and admits to himself as a cowardly, manipulating fraud and an occasional thief who's primarily motivated by self-interest, all while becoming one of the most exceptional Huntsmen to date; being able to prevail against the worst of Grimm, bandits, terrorists, criminals, and other threats. Remnant would have suffered a terrible fate without his vital contribution._

_It should be also noted that he is his own worst critic, as everyone was able to acknowledge his accomplishments, save for himself, who dismisses them as nothing more than a result of luck, coincidence, instinct or an error on the opposition's part. Admittedly, I also assumed this, but only because I was very arrogant and prideful at the time. Eventually, I mellowed up to him and was even surprised to learn of his insecurities and ulterior motives. Contrary to how he sees himself - he was, and I say this with absolute sincerity, the most compassionate and altruistic person I've met, and overtime, his usual fear noticeably fades as he willingly puts himself before others in life-threatening situations where he could have easily withdrawn from. Thus, putting me in the conclusion that his claims and excuses to downplay or even deny his efforts were nothing more than his lack of self-esteem. It is said that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it, and there is no other individual that I know of that is more courageous than Jaune Arc._

_Before his recent disappearance, he entrusted me a series of journals that he has been writing for almost his entire life. Unlike his published memoirs which are mostly written based on public depiction, these are written in a candid manner and presents the events as they actually transpired - most of the time. I've taken the initiative to edit them and create a compilation of these accounts in his honor and to reminiscent of our times together as well as so readers may gain insight on Jaune's peculiar take on heroism. I shall henceforth name them "The Jaune Archive". (Please note that I am aware of the pun in the title and I can assure you, is completely unintentional.)_

_Due to the amount of sensitive and confidential information included in this accounts as well as to ensure public morale and Jaune's reputation as an inspiration for Huntsmen, these documents are strictly classified, with only a select few individuals granted to have the authorization to read. Any violation is punishable by law._

_While the contents are detailed enough for itself, keep in mind that these accounts were written in Jaune's own viewpoints. As such, he has a tendency to leave omissions and discrepancies while recounting events with his own personal biases, occasionally even outright lying about them. So I highly recommend you to take his own writing with a pinch of salt, especially during attempts to describe himself. Thankfully, I took the liberty to add annotations and occasional excerpts from various sources to provide clarity, context and better coherence to Jaune's self-centered narrative for the reader's convenience. That aside, I shall allow him to tell his story with his own words._

_The first book will cover Jaune's life in Beacon Academy, as well as the friends and enemies he made along the way._

 

**_Weiss Schnee_ **

**_Chief Executive Officer, Schnee Dust Compa_ _ny_ ™**

 

 

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Beginning of an Arc**

* * *

 

> " _Blessed art the cowardly, for they know the perils of the world. Whereas the brave would foolishly storm toward it."_
> 
> **_-The Book of Light, verse 276_ **

 

Every time I look back at my childhood, it's hard not to have the urge to strangle my younger self for all the stupid things I used to do. One particular memory is when I was stargazing with my family and saw a shooting star. They say that if you make a wish when one passes, it would eventually come true. Being the naive child I was, I wished that I would become a hero like my parents.

Few years passed, I wised up and regretted the wish. I realized that being a hero wasn't as glamorous as the stories envisioned it would it be. They barely go to exciting adventures, becoming rich and famous on the way; instead, they usually end on suicide missions and die in the worst ways possible, and are only remembered as just another shameful causality, and if they do survive it usually means they are fit to be sent to another suicide mission and die there instead, otherwise the cycle continues until you stop and retire. Their efforts barely change anything, even if they do, they are immediately undone, rendering them pointless. The only reason why my parents are still alive, despite being known heroes is that they were smart enough to choose to live a modest life and only take jobs that doesn't guarantee their children getting orphaned.

Face it, we're stuck in a never-ending war with Grimm, who already outnumber us ten-to-one, and they still keep growing every second. People had to sleep with guns under their pillows because the Grimm found them simply because they had nightmares, and even if you do avoid them, you still have to deal with bandits and terrorists, who are more or less worse. It wouldn't be so bad if the kingdoms weren't so above their heads that they're still on each other's throats ever since the Empire fell. The world just wasn't worth saving.

Therefore, I have decided that a hero's life was not for me and chose to stay with my boring yet safe life at home. Just fool around, play video games, read comic books, maybe help with the farm when I feel like to, and not get myself killed for trying to be something I'm not and will never be.

It didn't stop Dad from training me and unlocking my aura though, since it was mandatory for Arc family members to be trained and have their aura unlocked, regardless if you're pursuing to become a Huntsman or not. Because Remnant is a dangerous place and mommy and daddy won't always be there for you. I can see where he is coming from, it's a pain to look after eight children while living in a countryside that is occasionally riddled with Grimm, and honestly, I had no issue with getting my aura. I'm aware that it attracts Grimm because it's the manifestation of the soul, and Grimm wants them souls, they would still want you dead regardless and if something wants to kill me, then I might as well last. As for Dad's training—I've managed to do well enough to survive against Grimm on my own. Perhaps I was too good because training became increasingly challenging with Dad holding back less and less. I managed to beat him several times, enough to become Huntsman material.  **[1]**  He told me to keep it up and that my childhood wish would indeed come true someday. I assured myself that the make-a-wish stuff with the shooting star were a bunch of silly superstitions and I shouldn't worry about it becoming true anytime soon.

And to my horror, it kind of did.

It all started with a day like any other, I was trying to mind my own business when Dad told me to make myself useful and run for some errands at the nearby town of Podunk. Since I had nothing to do because the holonet was down due to the CCT being under maintenance and that Rouge hid my comic books again and I couldn't bother to waste time and sweat searching every inch of the house just to find them for the umpteenth time.  **[2]**  I accepted the task and headed towards Podunk. I had no reason to worry then. Podunk was a small and boring town with nothing interesting ever happening. Life there was the same every day. People go to work while others stay at home, children playing on the streets, all that kind of stuff. The Grimm don't even bother attacking the place because of how little negativity its denizens are experiencing.

Little did everyone including myself know that it wouldn't be a typical day for long.

When I went to the bank to withdraw some money, a man in a mariachi outfit and a decorated skull mask with four other masked men came out of the blue and declared a robbery. The local authorities weren't able to do anything because as it turned out, they were bound and gagged shortly before the heist took place. And even if they weren't, they would still be useless because this was the only serious crime to occur so far. Not to mention the CCT was inconveniently still down so no one was able to call for help. When they opened the vault, the guy in charge with the hostages got carried away with the money they discovered, I took this opportunity to knock him out and ran to the exit. I managed to escape until I ended up running into an Ursa—not just any Ursa, but an Ursa Major. I turned back and ran to town with the Ursa following me. I really didn't know what I was thinking that time, I was too busy panicking to even care that I put the town in even greater danger. Thankfully, most of the locals were hiding indoors when it all happened and those who weren't at least did not get caught into the fight. The rest of the bandits came out of the bank and they all engaged the Ursa. Three out of five bandits were killed, including the leader, who was trying to murder me with his billhook machetes/shotguns, but I was able to fend him off thanks to Dad's intense training. Before he knew it, he was mauled by the Ursa because he was too occupied trying to at least land a hit on me. By a stroke of luck, I somehow manage to decapitate the Ursa and lived to tell the tale. The surviving pair of bandits were routed out and were eventually found and arrested by Pucelle's sheriff department.

Next thing I know, the town regarded me as a hero who simultaneously foiled a bandit and Grimm attack, when all I did was run around defending myself from anything that tried to come near me. I didn't even intend to save the town, I was mostly concerned with preserving my own skin and the bandits only lost mostly because I was stupid enough to lure the Ursa into town instead of running anywhere else. If I had known that bandits were about to raid Podunk, I would've stayed at home. But I knew that telling them that won't do any good, so I just nervously smiled, waved and went with the flow.

Becoming a hero was just a stupid childhood dream when I wanted to be like my parents and the comic book heroes I used to look up to. One of the reasons I gave up the dream is because I realized that I will never be worthy enough to become one. I never even cared about being selfless and altruistic, it was just the thrill and the adventures that used to get me interested into becoming a hero; saving lives and fighting evil were just excuses to make me feel good about myself while becoming famous and beloved in the process. Now I found myself getting those things and I can't help but feel bad about it.

I'm just glad the whole thing is over and that I'm still in one piece. Unfortunately, word about my 'heroics' went viral and almost immediately after the CCT went back up, someone posted a video on the holonet of me fending off the bandit leader and killing the Ursa Major. Even worse when I realized the bandit I just defeated was one of Vacou's most wanted by the name of 'El Segadore', so not only I managed to save Podunk by beheading an Alpha-Class Grimm—but I also got an infamous bandit lord killed without knowing who he was. Why was he on the northeastern part of Sanus was beyond me.  **[3]**

It didn't take long for the Headmaster of Beacon Academy: Ozpin, to take notice of my recent exploit, he was impressed enough to recommend me to his school which my father horrifyingly concurred. I've been trying to avoid combat schools for all my life—they put you into dangerous assignments, have you: share classes and compete with bloodthirsty nutjobs, fight the worst monstrosities in Remnant while everyone casually watches, sit to hours of boring lectures before giving you piles of tedious homework, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I've successfully convinced my parents that they were not worth my time and that I'm better off being home-schooled and have them personally train me instead. Besides, Viola, Vert, Blanc, and Noir didn't have to go. Sadly, I won't get the same results here because Beacon is not like other schools, it was one of a kind—the most prestigious combat academy on Sanus, only the best of the best have the privilege to study there, and Dad sure as hell isn't going to have my talents wasted on me sitting around the house for my whole life and took the opportunity to accept the offer, effectively making one of my worst nightmares come true.

I discovered that Ozpin had been interested in me even before the Podunk event. Dad used to be one of his pupils and kept in touch with him. They talked about me and my sisters; he must have told him how I beat him enough times to be qualified for Beacon. So even if I didn't go to Podunk and cross paths with El Edgelord and have an Ursa tear him apart then slay said Ursa, he would have still dragged my ass into Beacon. The recent incident was just the last nail in the coffin.

My family persuaded me to go. Dad was noticeably worried at first but he saw a lot of potential in me as a Huntsman and he doesn't want to see them get wasted on nothing. He begged me not to have his only son let him down. Dad was a good man, he was always there when I needed him and this was the only way I could repay him after everything he's done for me. I would have hated to see him upset because of my own selfishness, with that I hesitantly accepted to go Beacon. I tried to convince myself that I might at least learn something and meet some people. Just treat it like a normal school—just with blood-sports and dangerous field trips, it can't be that bad.

Right?

In all honesty, I don't really mind attending the stupid academy itself that much. I can take hours of boring lessons just fine, it helps that they are said to be more bearable than normal classes and that even includes combat training. I have at least picked up a few experiences to catch up with those subjects. So it wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for the dangerous missions that contain live Grimm and other hostile wildlife that becomes more endangering as the years go on, that is what I'm worried about, especially given with what they are expecting of me thanks to the status I've unintentionally made for myself.

My dad bestowed upon to me the Arc family sword—the Crocea Mors. A sword once held by my great-great-grandfather, Harry "The Flash" Arc, who fought during the Great War  **[4]**. Passed down from generation to generation. It was a symbol of Arc Family honor. The sword has been used for several generations; it witnessed many conflicts and slew countless amounts of men and beasts alike, yet it still looked like it was fresh from the forge.

Mom also handed me her old, yet fully functional and effective shield—The Désir Ardent, it was once a simple steel heater shield with the crest of the D'Rémy family, now it's painted to have the Arc family crest and was modified to be transformable to a scabbard for the Crocea Mors.

I felt ashamed of carrying the weight of these valuable relics, I've never truly done anything that makes me worthy of their possession. Was it because I was the only Arc child who bothered using a sword and shield and that my parents decided to give them to me so they don't have to stay in one place and collect dust? Whatever the reason was and regardless if I deserve them or not, they're mine now, apparently.

Before taking the airship to Beacon, I gave my parents a hug and waved my all sisters goodbye. I am going to miss our times together whether it's Dad's training, Mom's comfort, Bleu's lessons, Viola dressing me up, farming with Vert, shooting with Rose, helping Blanc and Noir with their music; heck, even suffering from Rouge's antics. While we do agree to keep in touch via video message, it just won't be the same.

As the airship lifted off. I gave one last wave to my family through the window and one last look at Pucelle's landscape. This was a place I've called home for my whole life. I prayed to whatever Gods that this won't be last time I see it.

This was not the day I waited for.

**=o=**

  1. _Caiaphas Arc is known to be one of the most skilled living swordsmen on Sanus. The fact that Jaune managed to defeat him a few times in duel is impressive enough on its own._
  2. _The Arc family manor is rather huge, having two floors with 20 rooms. It's understandable why Jaune chose not to spend any effort to search for his comic books._
  3. _According to police reports, El Segadore was supposed to meet for a face-to-face trade with Mistral's Yakuza. He arrived far ahead of time, so he went on a crime spree, taking advantage of the state of the CCT. After his death and the apprehension of his surviving accomplices, the Yakuza ship was raided by the authorities and seized all of the assets inside it._
  4. __The Crocea Mors was originally the personal weapon of King Phadrig the VII prior upon recompensating it to Harry Arc after the war and becoming an Arc family heirloom.__



* * *

The trip to Beacon was not a comfortable one.

It wasn't because I was anxious that I was going to a school where teachers would throw every type of danger to you as part of their institution, but it's because of an old enemy of mine—motion sickness. The first few hours weren't so bad. Dizziness aside, I thought that I would be able to get used to it, then I got a grim reminder that air travel doesn't get along with my weak stomach. I've been struggling to hold my vomit for hours and the lack of restrooms aren't helping. Apparently, some moron on the airship manufacturing company thought it would be a hilarious idea not to any add lavatories despite long travel times and instead spend the rest of the budget on holo-screens. They didn't even bother to add any waste containers either nor a single open window where I could just release it there and let an unlucky schmuck get hit by an aerial assault. Thanks a lot, bastards; good luck getting sued over this.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon!" A female voice greeted via hologram. It was a sign that I was close to finishing that nightmare of a flight, which was a relief. I listened to her message hoping it would buy me some time to hold my puke. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy!"

Which I never wanted in the first place. I feel bad for all the idealistic idiots who dreams to get into Beacon, only for them pick me instead. They would have made better Huntsmen than I would, even if they would last for only less than five seconds on the field, at least they had the spirit. I would have gladly traded this position with one of them if I got the chance.

She continued. "Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

If your definition of courage means running around and get a crime lord killed only because you forgot that you bought a Grimm into town, then I fit just right in.

The hologram faded and everyone went to the windows to check the view, meanwhile, I was back with my losing battle against motion sickness. I tried to restrain my vomit for a few more minutes before I could arrive at Beacon. But alas, I came to the point where I couldn't hold it any longer. So I told to myself to screw it and let it some of it out before stopping. I swallowed it back and panted for air before holding it out again. I saw that my pool of bile ended up hitting the shoe of an above-average looking blonde girl, who was being accompanied by a short goth-looking girl who both were shrieking out of disgust and are withdrawing from the puke. Knowing that these girls can kick my ass at a minute's notice and not because I think girls take their shoes seriously, I slinked towards the corner of the ship, not caring about the disgusted remarks being made by other attendees.

I'm going to file a complaint to the airship manufacturers after this.

After a few minutes which felt like an eternity. The airship finally stopped and opened its doors, the first thing I did after exiting the ship, was quickly unload the rest of my vomit in the nearest garbage bin before getting up and panting for fresh air. I'm a son of a well-respected Huntsman and former military commander, and has been said to be the one who saved a humble town from a wanted, ruthless bandit lord and an overgrown Ursa that even fully-trained Huntsmen struggle to defeat... and the first five seconds in Beacon consists of me throwing up in a trash bin. This is how the savior of Podunk starts his school year, people. After finally departing from a lengthy battle with nausea, I took a moment to relax and headed to the courtyard to give my first impressions of the academy.

I stopped in the middle of the tracks to appreciate the academy's structure. I heard people say about how beautiful Beacon is and I've seen pictures of the academy itself but I was not prepared to be astounded by its beauty in the flesh. 'The Shining Beacon', indeed. Now I'm no expert when it comes to architecture but Beacon looked more like a palace than a school. If it didn't call itself an academy, you could easily trick someone into believing that royalty or an evil wizard or dragon lives there. Then again being one of the most prestigious academies in the world requires you to rub your glamour on the other schools' faces. That aside, it's pretty beautiful. It almost makes me forget that this place would probably be the death of me.

My gaze was rudely interrupted when I heard what sounds to be an explosion. I turned around and saw the goth girl from earlier being yelled a regal-looking girl clad in white. The only thing I heard was the goth girl called the other a princess or something before another girl entered the scene. This one had long black hair and wore the most oversized bow I've ever seen on the top of her head. Gods, and I thought those only existed in silly cartoons. The girl in white angrily took something from her before leaving.  **[1]**

"I promise I'll make it up to you!" the goth girl cried out to her, who was probably pretending to not have heard her. She sighed and turned to the other girl, only to see her walking away too. All alone, she sat down and fell to the ground. I feel kinda sorry for her, I know what it feels like to be left out. If I were to survive four years here, I needed someone to watch my rear. So I put on my 'nice guy' persona and walked over to her and helped her out.

"Hey," I called out, she opened her eyes, revealing her silver irises. "You okay?" I asked as I offered my hand.

She smiled and took my hand and rose. "I'm fine." she said. "Just having a rough start."

"Happens to the best of us," I replied.

She paused for a moment before recognizing who I was. "Wait, aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

Oh boy.

**=o=**

  1. _It was just one of the dust vials that dropped after Ruby fell on my luggage. I had my servants take care of the rest._



* * *

We headed inside the academy together. As we were walking, I tried to convince her how serious motion-sickness is, how it's a more common problem than people think and why it's not my fault that air travel makes me nauseous.

"Look, I'm sorry. Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind. I didn't quite get your name." she excused.

Oh right, we haven't properly introduced ourselves to each other. With that out of the way, I gave out the cheesiest introduction I could think of: "Well, the names Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!" Okay, that was a little too cheesy than what I was aiming for but seeing her unconvinced face, it worked.

"Do they?"

They don't.

Instead of answering, I gave out a shrug. It's not like that I'm going to convince her that ladies always fall for guys because of their cheesy pick-up lines or because they act suave like some Atlesian super-spy. Mom said that women don't work that way.

"Names Ruby, Ruby Rose." she said perkily.

"Nice name." I complimented. "I have a sister named Rose, you kind of remind me of her sometimes." Come to think of it, it's funny to see that having generations of parents name their kids after colors, which caused some kids to have the same name. I know at least four people named 'Amber'.  **[1]**

Ruby smiled for a second but I noticed it turn upside-down. "Look, Jaune... I'm sorry for calling you 'Vomit Boy'. I guess I was coping with the fact that my sister ditched me and that other girl at yelled at me because I caused that explosion... might as well call me 'Crater Face', huh?"

Crater Face? Last time I checked—there weren't any craters I saw after the explosion. Now that I think of it, either my eyesight was failing me or the gods were lazy today.

Because of the awkward atmosphere we were getting. She decided to change the subject. "So… I got this thing." she said before she pulled out her weapon, unfolding it into a large scythe which startled me a bit.

"Whoa!" I stepped back. "Is that a scythe?" Of all the weapons to choose from, she picked a farming tool that was meant to harvest crops.  **[2]**

"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle!" she presented proudly, cocking the charging handle. Of course, nowadays all the cool kids have a weapon which can turn into a gun. Which ranges from plausible and practical (for example, Bleu's halberd rifle and admittedly El Segadore's shotgun machetes.) to stupid and downright ridiculous. There was also this one guy who had a laser yo-yo as a weapon, while his weapon doesn't transform, it begs to ask what was he thinking when he designed that crap. Let's just say he became too crippled to become a huntsman.

"Oh, that's cool!" I said, trying sound as enthusiastic as I can.

"So what do you got?"

I gulped for a moment since my weapons are pretty boring compared to others, then again I wasn't planning to impress anyone. "Well, I got this sword," I unsheathe the Crocea Mors and gave it a twirl.

"Ooooohh!" she seemed impressed for whatever reason despite my weapon being arguably the dullest armament in an academy full of crazy hardware that I might as well bought a rusted shovel as my weapon.

"And I got this shield" I took out the Désir Ardent and raised it to its shield form. Basically the closest thing I got to a transformable thingamajig.

"So, what do they do?"

"Well—the sword… kills things." I know it was so blatant that the stupidest person could figure that out but it was the only answer I could think of. "And the shield gets smaller when I'm not using it," I said while demonstrating it and putting it back on my belt. "And before you ask, yes it still weights the same." I have pretty much have gotten accustomed to its weight since I used to carry shields that were just as heavy. While it's nothing much to be proud of, I am happy with my choice of weapons. The simplicity of the sword makes it very useful and effective. They're also still pretty common even if only a few people use them today, so if you lose your sword, you can easily just replace it with another one. As for the shield, it plays a crucial part on defense, and as for someone who values his life, the shield is my most trusted friend on the field of battle.

"Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons," she giggled. "I guess I did go a little overboard when designing it."

"That's nice. I never crafted my own weapon." I didn't have much of a reason to. I haven't attended any combat schools which would have required me to craft one. Besides, why bother making your own weapon, when there are several well-made weapons for you to use?

"Oh? So where'd you get it?" she asked very curiously.

"It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight during the war." I answered.

"Sound more like a family heirloom to me!" she chuckled. "Well, I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah... the classics," I muttered as I sheathe my sword.

"So why'd you help me out back there? In the courtyard?" she asked as we continue to walk.

I thought for a reason before coming up with one. "Eh, why not? My mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'" I lied. Mom actually told me to never trust strangers, especially the suspicious-looking ones.

"Hmm..." Ruby hummed. "Hey, where are we going?"

I didn't realize we were wandering around blindly until she brought that up. "Oh, I don't know. I was following you."

They didn't exactly give me a map or anything, they just told me to get to the auditorium once I arrived. We found ourselves lost inside. There wasn't a directory or some recognizable landmark we could as a reference.

I looked around for a clue and in a distance, I saw a tall, athletic, redheaded beauty who caught my attention. I squinted my eyes and leaned my head closer to take a good look at her. She looked kind of familiar, have I seen her before? I couldn't tell. She was curiously looking around. I notice her bit her lip before walking away.

"Uhh, Jaune?" Ruby waved her hand in front of my face. "Are you okay?"

I snapped out of my daze. "Let's follow her," I pointed towards the tall redhead. "I think she'll take us to the auditorium."

We began to trail her. We were able to be discreet that she didn't realize she was being followed by two lost weirdos. She led us to a large building before being pulled over by a group of people who seemed to recognize her. She continued to enter the building while being followed by the said group.

"Well, this must be it." I declared. We went inside the hall and saw an entire audience of soon-to-be Grimm fodder, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

"Ruby! Over here!" called out the blonde from earlier whose shoes I vomited on, sticking out like a sore thumb from a crowd of what felt like looking at a bunch of faceless silhouettes. "I saved you a spot!"

"Oh, hey I gotta go. I'll see you after the ceremony!" she said. Leaving for her blonde friend.

Sweet girl, her optimism pretty much brightened my day. It's a shame that she's throwing her whole life for a dangerous profession that increases your chance of death, in a world that already wants to kill you. I hope things go well for her, and I mean it, really.

I looked around the auditorium and spotted the redheaded girl. I walked towards her side, pardoning myself from the people standing in the way until I got next to her.

"Umm... hi." I approached shyly.

"Hello." she graciously greeted me back.

"Nervous?"

"I guess you can say that." she confessed.

"So, mind if I ask for your name?" I saw her emerald eyes widened when I asked her that. Was there something I missed?

"Pyrrha Nikos." she noticed me fret and assured me. "It's fine. There's no harm in asking."

"Uhh... okay... thanks. Ja-Jaune Arc. Pleasure to meet you, Pyrrha." I offered my hand.

"Likewise." she accepted the gesture and smiled.

"Look, sorry if I bothered you. It's just... you looked familiar, and I just wanted to get that out of my system."

"Don't worry about it. In fact, it feels nice for someone not to recognize me for a change." she said, suggesting that she is rather popular, which explains why she was swarmed before entering this place.

I checked to see how Ruby was doing and saw her being scolded by that girl in white again. What's her problem anyway?

"…Like tall, blond, and scraggly over there." I heard her say to Ruby, apparently pointing her thumb back to my direction. Was she talking about me? I'll have to ask later. Right now, the show's about to start.

Enter The Great & Powerful Ozpin **[3]**  – the man responsible for trapping me here. Turns out, my little joke about an evil wizard living in Beacon wasn't far-fetched. Beside him was the woman from the hologram in the airship – Glynda Goodwitch, if I'm not mistaken.

He approached the microphone and spoke. "Ahem" Everyone in the room turned to him. "I shall keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."

Heh, you wish.

His speech became a bit blunt "But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction..." he gave a subtle glare at me as if that remark was directed towards myself. Considering that Dad told me almost the same thing, that's probably the case. Nobody was able to notice this because they were too busy murmuring on what the hell he's talking about.

He looked back at the crowd and continued. "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far." the way he was speaking, it felt like a lecture for me disguised as an opening ceremony for the school.

"It is up to you to take the first step."

He turned back and left as Miss Goodwitch stepped up. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You're dismissed." she announced before leaving as well.

Normally, I would still think of something witty, but I just stood there, trying to comprehend if Ozpin just called me out in front of the entire school.

I was able to stop spacing out before Pyrrha was able to see me in my bewildered state. "That was... strange." she was visibly just as perplexed as everyone else.

"You tell me," I replied, hiding the frightened tone in my voice.

I remembered wanting to ask what was with Ruby and that other girl. "I got to go, it was nice knowing you, Pyrrha."

I walked straight towards Ruby's position. "Hey Ruby, is there something wrong?" I asked. I turned my head to the girl in white to finally get a good look at her, I once again found myself in a gaze. She was easily the most beautiful girl I set my eyes on. With her silver hair complemented with a side ponytail, light blue eyes whose grace is never tarnished by the scar on her left eye, and her petite body—she looked more like an angel than human. Maybe she really is an angel. I never believed in love at first sight, dismissing them as ludicrous nonsense popularized by mediocre romance novels... until now.

...Then I took it all back after she opened her mouth.

"Yes, there is something wrong!" she answered before Ruby could say anything. "Your idiot of a girlfriend almost got us killed!"

I slightly flinched. There goes my plan to asking out this pretty if irritable white-haired chick sometime. "Whoa, okay first off, I am not her boyfriend and second... who are you?"

In contrast to Pyrrha, she did not take kindly to that question. "Have you been living under a rock?!" she yelled before toning her voice down to a proud manner. "I am Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company."

Cool, and I'm the vice-mayor of Who-gives-a-crapVille.

I'm familiar with the Schnee Dust Company, or the SDC, for short. I just couldn't bother to know what's beyond their company name and products. I rarely use dust myself.

"Jaune Arc. Pleasure to meet you." Well, it was a pleasure for maybe like three seconds.

"Now with that out of the way, would you kindly tell your friend to be more careful around dust?! I don't need her causing more property damage."  **[4]**

"I'm sure already she apologized and promised not to repeat it again and if that's wasn't enough then I would also like to apologize on her behalf."

She groaned and decided to change the subject. "I noticed that you've made your acquaintance with Pyrrha Nikos..." she folded her arms. "Do you have no idea who she is as well?"

Oh no, I could see where this was going. "Well... she looked kind of familiar..." I said. "No. I can't say I heard of her though."

"Excuse me? You really don't know who she is?!"

I simply shook my head.

"She graduated top of her class at Sanctum!"

"Never heard of it."

"She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row, a new record!"

"The what?" I know what Region Tournaments are. It was just something I couldn't care less about.

"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"  **[5]**

"Wait, that was her?!" I suddenly exclaimed. It's no wonder why she looked familiar. Ever since her face was slapped on every Marshmallow Flakes box, I've been trying to ask: 'Who is this chick and what is she doing on my cereal box?' before immediately moving on and just ate its contents. It didn't bug me again until now.

"So, after hearing all of this, do you really think she deserves your time?" Weiss asked skeptically.

I was already aware that I was out of her league the moment I saw her fans surround her. I don't plan to go on the trouble of arguing with a pseudo-princess any further, so I just told her what she wanted to hear. "I guess not."

"Good. Speaking of which, why am I wasting my time with you imbeciles? Now if you'll excuse me, I shall make my leave." she said before walking away.

Sigh, it's one of those girls. I decided to annoy her one more time before she was able to make her exit. "Oh, and just for the record, I'm a natural blond."

"Whatever."

Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine. I chuckled to myself.

"You alright, Ruby?" I asked as I turned my head to her.

"I'm okay." she replied. "We just set off on the wrong foot, I'm sure she'll be nicer soon! After all, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet!"

Oh gods, I was worried she'd take that advice to heart.

"Hey," Ruby's blonde companion called. "Thanks for sticking for my sister there—wait a minute, are you Vomit Boy?!"

I was too occupied with why she just called Ruby her sister to be disturbed by that nickname. I can tell that she is definitely not living that one down.

"The one and only." I jested. "It's Jaune Arc, by the way. Sorry for throwing up on your shoes, motion-sickness and all." I said, doing my best to maintain eye-contact and not have my sights fall toward her 'distracting assets'. Thankfully, living with seven sisters helped me prepare for this type of situation. She kinds of looks like Rose, sans the twin ponytails and the country-girl accent, instead she had hair that looks like it was never cut once in her life.  **[6]**  Seriously, what is it with this school and attractive women?

"Hey, don't sweat it, its water under the bridge. Besides, any friend of my sister is a friend of mine. Yang Xiao Long, nice to meet you."

"Good to know, you said you two are sisters?" I curiously asked, she barely had any physical resemblance to Ruby and they don't even use the same surname for whatever reason.

"Well, half-sisters. While we do share the same dad, we were born from different mothers." Yang looked down as they both frowned. I can tell that there was something that happened that they would rather not talk about.

"I see. Sorry for asking, I'm a little curious sometimes." I apologized.

"It's okay, I didn't want to leave you hanging." she reassured, cheering up.

"Hey, Jaune." Ruby called. "Thanks again for standing up to me there."

"Just helping out a friend,"

"Man—can you believe that Weiss girl? She's such a bi-...very irritating person." Yang hissed.

"She's rather cold, don't you think?" I quipped.

She laughed. "That's my line, Vomit Boy. Anyhow, it was really nice to meet you. We'll catch you later, right now we wanna tour the rest of Beacon."

"Be seeing you, Jaune!" Ruby said.

"You too, Ruby."

After I parted ways with the sisters, I went to the ballroom where I would apparently be staying in until tomorrow. As I entered, I saw some students unpacking and unfolding their sleeping bags while others were just sitting down and chatting.

So far, no one has recognized me as the Podunk guy yet, despite it being all over the news the other day. I did get a few glances, but they don't appear to be intrigued by my everyman appearance. Maybe they do recognize me, but they didn't see what I did as much of a feat—being capable of slaughtering Grimm is a minimum requirement after all, so it's probably overshadowed by all the much more impressive stunts actual Huntsmen and Huntresses pull. Not that I'm complaining, I'd rather be known as 'Vomit Boy' than have someone remind me of my embarrassing fraud of a reputation.

"Ren, look! It's Jaune Arc, the Defender of Podunk himself!"

Oh, for crying out loud.

Before I knew it, an orange-haired girl dashed towards me and repeatedly shook my hand with her tight grip. "Hi, my name is Nora. I'm a huge fan of your work. You were awesome! How often do you see someone defeat an Ursa Major and a bandit lord at the same time? Oh, you got to tell me your secrets." she babbled, still shaking my hand. I was trying to process what she all just said.

"Calm down, Nora, I think he's a little tired from his trip." A ravened haired boy with a single pink stripe said as he catches up with his friend.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Nora apologized, letting my hand go as she steps back. "It's just a huge honor to finally meet you. This is Ren, well, Lie Ren, but everyone calls him Ren. Nobody calls him Lie, it sounds too much like 'Lie' as in 'lying'."  **[7]**  She giggled before slowing and toning her voice down as she turned her face to Ren. "No offense."

"None taken," he said.

She turned back to me and began to babble loudly once again. "We've been together for soooo long, well not 'together-together', not saying he's handsome; he IS handsome, but that'd be just weird, right?"

"Umm... right." It was the only thing I could say at the moment.

"Well, enough about us! Tell us about you! How did you save an entire town from an Ursa Major and that big meanie, El Segadore?!" she eagerly asked.

I was worried I have to answer questions from my apparent fans as if being interviewed by journalists and the Great & Powerful Ozpin weren't trouble enough. So I just went with the half-truth. "I don't know how I did it honestly, I just... did it," I answered nervously.

She doesn't seem to be disappointed at that answer at all. "Wooooow! So you're telling me that you are so amazing, you just simply defeated them like it was nothing? Awesome! Even me and Ren have a little trouble beating a few bandits and a single large Grimm, you on the other hand, just put them in their place like it's nobody's business! You are more hardcore than I thought."

That's obviously not what I meant, but with someone like this, what else could you do? "It's nothing, really, I was very lucky it went that way," I responded. Remember that El Edgelord would have killed me if it weren't for the Ursa I accidentally lured into town.

"Still, you have to admit, it was impressive," Ren stated, finally speaking again after letting Nora do most of the talking. "The authorities have been after El Segadore for years; not only you stopped a robbery, but you succeeded in where everyone failed. His clan wasn't the same since his demise."

"Yeah, it kinda does," I replied. I really need to get out of this, I thought. It felt uneasy when discussing that fiasco. "Listen I got to go, thanks for the support."

"Anytime, Jaune!" Nora said.

Well, that was bizarre. Now I have an adoring fan on the same campus, honestly, I don't know how to feel about that. I do feel ashamed of because she is praising me for something I only did because I didn't know any better, but at the same time, she seemed so happy that I didn't want to disappoint her.

I chose not to think about it. I've met enough people with varying quirks and personalities who I will apparently be stuck with for the next four years that I needed a break.

**=o=**

  1. _An unfortunate side effect of the colorful naming convention that remains a problem to this day, while common names were a thing before, the first batch were mostly named after basic colors, which provided almost no variety. Eventually, a concerned individual urged the population to diversify the names of their children by releasing a long catalog that included almost every color or color-related names; even then, communities are still prone into having at least two or more children having the same name after a color, especially with less creative parents._
  2. _Ignoring the fact that scythes have been proven to be effective melee weapons, and the existence of war scythes._
  3. _Jaune had nicknames for everyone he holds distaste with, though he was careful enough to keep them privately. One exception would be me, but it was because everyone called me nicknames at that time, which I admittedly deserved._
  4. _Friendly reminder that The Schnee Dust Company™ is still not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company™ product._
  5. _Fun fact: While Pyrrha did enjoy posing for the box, she dislikes the cereal itself, saying they are unhealthy_.
  6. _A correct assumption. Yang takes her hair very seriously. In fact, she unlocked her semblance at her first attempted haircut. Needless to say, Taiyang Xiao Long had to pay for the damages._
  7. _Many people assume that Lie Ren's naming order is 'surname first, given name second' due to him hailing from Anima, where some parts follow that naming order. It's soon confirmed that this is not the case for him and that he is often addressed through last-name basis, intentionally or not. Not that he minds at all._



* * *

 

If there's anything more embarrassing than my undeserved reputation, it's my choice for apparel during lights-out—A light blue adult-sized onesies, accompanied with bunny slippers of the same color. Anyone starting on elementary school would deem wearing these discomfiting which I barely felt until now because I never thought of wearing these outside the house.

I have four legitimately good reasons for wearing this ignominious excuse of a nightwear:

One, its fabric is too comfortable not to wear.

Two, my other options are so much worse, that I left them at home.

Three, the reactions I get from it were pure gold.

Four, screw you, I wear what I want, what are you gonna do, mock me to death? Oooh, I'm scared.

I know I could have just slept with jeans or with boxers on at least but wearing jeans in bed is rather uncomfortable that it would require an amount of fatigue to sleep in those things, and there's no way I'm showing my heart-patterned boxers in public, if I am to make a fool out of myself anyway, I might as well get comfortable.

What worries me more than my childish nightwear is the initiation tomorrow, there was no doubt that I have to impress The Great & Powerful Ozpin by going through trials that he himself has set up. So I waited for the locker room to be clear of any potential eavesdroppers before calling the most intelligent trustworthy person I know who have previously attended Beacon.

"Hello, Jaune! How's Beacon treating you?" Bleu appeared on my scroll's screen, wearing her dark blue nightgown. I haven't seen her much in person since she was too busy teaching at a Huntsman academy on Mantle.

"Not as bad as I fear it to be, even made a few friends. Its tomorrow's initiation is what I'm worried about." I told her.

She seemed to be more focused on a familiar sight. "Are you seriously wearing those in public?"

"Hey, I didn't have much of a choice, you've seen my other pajamas!"

She audibly sighed. "Fair point, but still, buy some new pajamas. I keep hearing Viola regretting to have made them like that. Seriously, you don't have a reason to be lazy this time."

I plan to. I always have the feeling that Viola only made these so that everyone at the house could stop cringing every time they look at me at night and made them cozy enough to keep me from wearing my old pajamas, however, it's still designed to make me look laughable, but at least relatively bearable to look at. I admit it's partly my fault by not telling Viola to make me a less embarrassing sleepwear, then again I got too comfortable with the onesies that I forgot to ask.

"Don't worry, I'll work it out. Anyway, can you give me some details about the initiation tomorrow?"

"You want me to spoil the initiation for you? Doesn't that ruin the excitement?" she raised her brow.

"The only thing exciting about it is when it ends." I scoffed.

She chuckled. "And why would I do that? Even if I tell you, it's probable that Professor Ozpin made changes to the initiation after these years." she has a point, being in her early thirties, it has been a decade since she studied here.

"It would still be worth it," I said. "You wouldn't want your only brother to die a shameful death on the initiation, would you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Jaune, you're not getting killed—I've seen what you can do, you'll be fine."

"I almost died to an Ursa and a group of bandits!"

"...And you didn't." she retorted. "Seriously, do you think that father trained you for nothing?!"

I widened my eyes a bit. I then realized that self-deprecation won't get me anywhere other than further arguing, so I gave her another reason. "I just wanted to be prepared this time. All I just need is a little heads-up, that's all."

She sighed again. "Knowing you, even if I refused, you would still stubbornly hold out for me, would you?"

I gave a dim nod. "Fine, at the very least, you'll learn something from this." she said, taking a deep breath. "The initiation will take place at the Emerald Forest. You will be launched into the air and you will have to land with your own landing strategy. You still have one right?"

I remember during Dad's training, I would sometimes be thrown off a cliff without a parachute just so I could work on my landing strategy. If it wasn't for my huge aura reserves I would have died or at least be very severely injured on my first few attempts.  **[1]**  "Just like we practiced at home." I nodded.

She smiled. "Good. Now about the Grimm, you have not much to worry about. Usually, the forest is just full of Beowolves, some Ursa and if you're very unlucky, a King Taijitu." I gulped at the latter. "It's nothing you can't handle. Besides, like I taught you back at home, King Taijitus aren't that bad if you aim for their heads."  **[2]**

Even if they are not as tough as they appear to be, their appearance alone was enough to give me a series of nightmares. I already hate snakes, and them being two-headed giant snakes makes them even more terrifying. "I hope you're right about this."

"Oh Jaune, as bitter as ever... You're not being rude to your new friends are you?"

"Of course not. I am a lot of things, Bleu, but being a straight up jerk isn't one of them."

"Good, because you'll be paired with the first person you make eye contact with, they'll be your partner for the next four years; if you want to get through Beacon, you will need to trust one another."

I thought of Ruby and Pyrrha for a second. "Anything else?" I asked.

"Your objective is to retrieve a relic, your team will be formed depending on the relic you took." she took a deep breath. "I've said enough. Take it with a grain of salt though, I may have not mentioned some things because of possible changes. Keep this between us, okay?"

"Don't worry. I will. Thanks a lot, Bleu."

"You're most welcome—and Jaune, please don't push yourself too hard." she said before ending the call. I got to give it to Bleu, she had yet to let me down, even if I did doze off at some of her lessons. She's always known to be the reliable one, practically carrying us Arc children. I wouldn't know what to do without her.

I exited the locker room and made my way to my futon. I reminded myself of my questionable apparel, while I still do find these embarrassing, it actually didn't bother me that much. I don't care how people see me so long as they don't intend to give me any serious harm. I would gladly exhibit my childish apparel for kicks. However, most students were fast asleep and those that weren't were too preoccupied. The only person who witnessed my crime of fashion was Yang, who was gazing at some shirtless boys, I spoiled her eye-candy by walking through her field of view, her smile quickly turned into a cringe as I grinned at my own mischief. Sadly, that was the only reaction I got when I reached my futon. The boys she was staring didn't seem to mind at all for some reason, maybe they were crazy enough to think that was normal, I don't know.

Still, it was worth it. I needed a little fun. It was one way cope with being on a school to become a killing machine in a world that hates your guts. The people I met here are surprisingly friendly and decent, aside from a certain snotty corporate brat, I wouldn't mind spending four years with them. But I shouldn't be too attached to these people, in case something goes terribly wrong, and this being a school for Huntsmen and Huntresses, that is very likely. We'll be going through hazardous terrors to see if we're good enough for them and the initiation tomorrow will only be the beginning. Perhaps I'm thinking this a little too much, they did manage to get themselves into this prestigious academy, after all, it's myself that troubles me—I'm nothing like them, I'm only here because of sheer chance and stupidity. I'm worried that I'm going to slow them down because of my cowardice and unwillingness to become a Huntsman like them, the fact that I been trying to make them believe that I was some lovable idiot to get them to be protective of me didn't help.

Why not get expelled? I didn't want to be here after all. Yeah well, the problem is, Dad would not only be disappointed in me, but it would also leave give my family name an ugly reputation. Rouge, for all her flaws, at least managed to graduate to Beacon, even if she did eventually lose her Huntress license, she wasn't pursuing to be a Huntress anyway since she only attended to stay out of trouble for a little while. Although even if she's not the worse person I've met, I'm not going to stoop lower than her and dishonor my family, so I'm going to have to get through Beacon while making sure my hide is safe and avoid being too impressive that teachers get the wrong idea and send me into dangerous missions because of it. Then I can go home and go back to my peaceful, boring life. It's the least I could do, I'm not going to let Dad down after everything he's done for me.

I sighed and took a deep breath. Only time will tell how well my life in Beacon goes, I'm still barely twenty-four hours here and I needed to get some sleep.

I took one last look at the shattered moon before falling into slumber...

...

...

...

Until it was ruined by the sound of fighting.

"What in the world is going on over here?!" I heard a certain Ice-Queen yell. "Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"

"Oh, not you again!" she and Yang exclaimed in unison.

I groaned. It's going to be a long year.

**=o=**

  1. 1.  _The Arcs are well-known for their large aura reserves, making them very durable fighters._
  2. 2.  _King Taijitus are infamous for their huge and menacing appearance, however, their fragile heads made them less threatening to any experienced Huntsmen. This is due to being one of the few Grimm specimens not bear a mask on its face._



* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jaune's father obviously is based on the titular protagonist this fic is inspired from as if his name didn't give that away, while his mother is a combination of Joan of Arc and Amberley Vail (where Jaune's blond hair and blue eyes inherited from.) (EDIT: I renamed Joan to Ambervale, since she was becoming too much of an Amberley, that I decided to name her after her. That and I wanted to deviate from stories where Jaune has a relative named Joan.)
> 
> And yes, El Segadore is based off Overwatch's Reaper in his Mariachi skin. And no, some of Jaune's sisters, namely Vert, Blanc, and Noir aren't intentional references to Hyperdimension Neptunia, I have yet to play those games myself.
> 
> Whether you enjoyed the fic or didn't, please don't forget to leave any feedback.
> 
> EDIT 12/9/2018
> 
> (SPOILERS FOR V6 CH7)
> 
> No, I am not renaming Bleu (or any of Jaune's sisters) to Saffron/Saphron, whatever her name is spelt. This story is already AU before the first episode even started, which means you can stop searching for retcons now.


	2. Knights N' Rooks

 

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Knights N' Rooks**

* * *

  

> _"When Grimm attack, get the women and children—use them as bait and shields."_
> 
> **_-Anonymous Vacuan Huntsman_ **

 

One of the things I need to get used to in my new life at Beacon is waking up early before seven o'clock every weekday. While I'm never a morning person, I'm neither a stranger to waking up earlier than usual. When I was in elementary, I had to wake up every 7:30 A.M, two hours and a half before school. After graduating, I was free to wake up any time before noon when my home-school lessons usually start. Even then, there were some days where I have to rise up early as part of Dad's physical exercises, and not to mention my sisters occasionally prank me early in the morning. The difference is that they only happen from time to time, here you have to be awake just in time before class for five days straight every week.

I grumbled as I took my scroll under the pillow to turn off the alarm. I looked around the ballroom to see what everyone was up to. Some of them were still sleeping while others have woken up, two of them, in particular, would be a fan of mine and her stoic friend.

"It's morning! It's morning! It's morning!" Nora sang as she danced around Ren.

I got up and headed to the locker room. I did not notice how much of a mess the locker arrangements were until today. It was too dark then and I was more concerned about contacting Bleu to even notice it. This is much worse if you assigned yourself with a higher locker number; in my case locker 636. Eventually, I managed to find my locker and had the place marked on my scroll map so I don't have to get lost trying look for it anymore.

I took a shower then changed to my usual jeans and hoodie, which has the print of Pumpkin Pete exposed because I was not wearing my breastplate to cover it. While childish, it's not as cringe-worthy as my pajamas. I left my armor in the locker because I didn't need it yet; I'll come back for it once I was done with breakfast and started preparing for the initiation. Seriously, what kind of moron would wear their armor for the entire day especially when they don't need it? I'd hate to be that guy.  **[1]**

I've always been fond of Pumpkin Pete for whatever reason. I've been attached to him ever since I was an infant. I remember getting a stuffed toy of him on my sixth birthday and then seeing Rouge crucify him a few days after. It didn't do much damage though, even if he now had holes on his paws, it wasn't anything Viola could fix. At least she didn't burn the cross while he was on it, that would have been offensively annoying.

I went to the cafeteria when I was thinking about what to eat, a certain beverage came to my mind.

"Got any tanna?"  **[2]**  I asked the lunch-lady when I approached her.

"Tanna?" she raised her brow in confusion. "We don't serve that junk here. Why would you even ask for it?"

I'm not going to deny its rather questionable taste. That drink is certainly not for everyone. I just figured that drinking it would help me stay awake because regardless of its taste, it's hard to stop drinking after taking a single sip. No wonder why Dad obsesses these things.

"Just curious," I said. "An egg sandwich and a cup of coffee would do." she complied with my order and went to the kitchen.

I turned back and saw that Nora was still talking to Ren, even with a pancake hanging in her mouth. She slurped the rest of her food making her much easier to hear.

"Oohhhh! We should come up with some sort of plan, to make sure we end up on the same team together! What if we bribe the headmaster? No, that won't work, he has the school."

Apparently, someone's been spreading rumors about teams. But by the looks of it, they seem to have no idea on how they are formed. Whatever you two are up to, I wish you luck.

After I finished my meal, I headed back to the locker room and grabbed my gear. I put on my breast and shoulder plates and placed my scabbard on my belt. I took my sword and gave a few spins before sheathing it.

As I was walking my way out of the locker room, I noticed Pyrrha and the infamous ice queen of dust and tantrums were having an exchange.

"Well... I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together." I overheard Weiss.

"Well, that sounds grand!" Pyrrha replied.

"Great!"

Pyrrha greeted me as soon as she saw me passing through. "Hello again, Jaune!" her hands were waving at me with Weiss scowling at my presence.

I stopped my tracks and returned the gesture. "Morning to you too, Pyrrha." I still couldn't believe she was the woman on the fifty cereal boxes I sent to win the very hoodie I was wearing. A beautiful, talented woman like her would've been the last person to sell-out to a brand of breakfast mostly aimed at kids.

"Oh Jaune, I'd like you to meet—"

"Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company" I interjected. "We have met before," I said as I smirked at her.

She folded her arms. "Seriously? You again?"

Good to see you too.

"So, are you ready for the initiation?" Pyrrha asked.

"I'm looking forward to it," I said with false confidence. Even with the information I got from Bleu, I still don't know what I was about to drag myself into.

"That's good. So Jaune, have you been planning on who you will be pairing up with?"

"Not yet. Play your cards right and maybe you'll end up with me."

"That would be great! Well, I think the teams are comprised of four students each, so—" Pyrrha said before getting interrupted by Weiss as she stepped forward in front of her.

"Hold on, I thought you acknowledged yesterday that you're not worth Pyrrha's time. I don't think you deserve to be on the same team as her either."

"Actually I'd think he'd make a great teammate," Pyrrha said leaning from Weiss' side.

No, she's right. I'll just drag her down because my lack of willingness would probably ruin her record as an upstanding warrior.

I looked down and gave a sigh of defeat. "Maybe not."

"Good," Weiss said. "At least you don't make things more trouble than they're worth."

I'll let her push me around for now. The more they think they're above you the easier they are to manipulate. Right now, she sees me as nothing more than a bumbling idiot, and I'll keep it that way for the moment.

"Come on, Pyrrha, they'll be waiting for us at the cliff," Weiss said before leaving.

Pyrrha reluctantly followed her. "I'll see you at the initiation!" she said to me before catching up with Weiss' pace.

I took time to appreciate their gorgeous rears as they walk toward the exit. If anyone told me sooner that Beacon would be chock-full of attractive Huntresses, I would have laughed at them for trying to lure in me in there, it would turn out that they were right.

"Wha'cha doing there, Lady-Killer?" Yang suddenly asked, popping out of nowhere with Ruby catching up behind her.

"Gah! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

She looked at my line of sight and saw Weiss and Pyrrha leaving the room and grinned. "Ooohhh! Been trying to win over the ice queen and the cereal girl, aren't you?" she teased.

"It's nothing like that. Really, we just talked about teams, that's all." I explained.

"Cool!" Ruby squealed in delight. "Want to be on our team? We're currently recruiting."

"That sounds great! Where do I sign up?" I said, pretending to have no clue on how the teams are formed.

"Awesome! We are going to be the best team ever!" Ruby said before we heard Ms. Goodwitch's voice on the P.A.

"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

Well, judgment day is about to begin.

"Come on, let's go," I told to the sisters as we headed to the Beacon Cliff.

**=o=**

  1. _Actually, it's a common practice for knights and warriors to wear their armor for long periods of time, which occasionally lasts for days. This helps them get accustomed to their weight and heat while exercising their mobility when wearing it._
  2. _A tea made from leaves of plants native in the ice caverns on Morosco. It's rather obscure and unpopular outside its homeland, even in other parts of Solitas._



* * *

When we arrived at the cliff, we saw Miss Goodwitch and several other students waiting for the initiation to start. We were told to stand on individual metal plates which has the emblem of Vale on it, which I correctly assumed that would be catapulting me into the forest. A few minutes later, The Great & Powerful Ozpin arrived with a mug of coffee **[1]**  in his hand.

"Is everyone present?" he asked, walking in front us as he looked around to see if anyone was missing. "Good, let us begin." he took a sip of his coffee before giving a speech. "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Ms. Goodwitch stepped in. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams'." With that, everyone stopped at whatever they were doing and paid extra attention. "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion—each of you will be given teammates... today."

Imagine my shock.

"What?! Oh~" Ruby cried.

Ozpin spoke again. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

Ruby groaned, obviously she wasn't pleased to hear any of this.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"Whaaaat?!" Ruby howled with a shocked expression as if her whole world broke around her.

"See? I told you!" A voice called out which was unmistakably Nora's.

Ozpin continued. "After you have partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."

Of all the things he just said, that one bothered me the most. The thing about combat schools is that they're dangerous enough that you could get killed as early as initiation.  **[2]**  I gave a nervous laugh before gulping at the thought.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Do you enjoy watching us suffer while you stand back drinking coffee? Because I'm getting that suspicious aura from you. Better yet, what did you put in your coffee that made you thought that this was a clever idea? I swear, I was one slip of a tongue away from actually asking that.

"Good! Now, take your positions."

As everyone prepares themselves to be launched, I unsheathe my sword and just told myself to remember what Dad had taught me.

Weiss was the first person to be catapulted to the forest, followed by others, then Ren and Nora. Next person to be launched was Yang, she gave Ruby a wink before putting on a pair of aviators then flying off with an audible 'Woohoo!'

Initially, I thought that she put on those sunglasses to look cool and show off, after all, it sounded like something she would do. Then it hit me, she wore those so she could avoid making eye contact with anyone she doesn't want to be paired up with, meaning you couldn't see her eyes when wearing them. Clever girl.  **[3]**

Ruby gave me a thumbs up before getting launched as well.

Before I knew it, I also found myself flying in the air. I manage to restrain my urge to scream and focused on getting a safe landing. As I get closer to the ground, I held my sword above my head in a reverse grip with both of my hands and stabbed the nearest tree trunk I was falling to.

So far, so good. I thought to myself. I hanged around for a few seconds before I pulled my sword from the trunk and pushed myself back, making me fall before landing on my feet unscathed. The first step went better than expected, I didn't like being thrown off to such height and expecting me to land safely, but that's over now.

The next thing I needed to do was to find a partner, then look for the temple, then take a relic and get the hell out of there. All while making sure the Grimm doesn't have their way with you.

Speaking of Grimm, I heard an animalistic growl coming from my back. I slowly turned around and saw a small pack of Beowolves, consisting of at least seven of them.

Indeed, I made a successful landing—at one of the worst parts of the forest.

"Umm... hi." I nervously greeted. Since my large pool of aura made me delicious, as well as I was giving them enough negative energy to make them want to kill me multiple times, obviously, I ran the fastest I could.

Wonderful, not one minute in on this stupid test of skill and I'm already chased by a Beowolf pack. I can already tell how this day was going to go, I thought.

I tried to wave my arms and called for help **—** no one answered, either because there weren't any human beings nearby or that they just couldn't bother to help. Either way, I was on my own.  **[4]**

I eventually got tired of running and the pack was still after me. I decided to put my training to good use since I thought no one was coming. I have dealt with a few Beos at Pucelle, how should this be any different?

I raised my shield and turned back as I use it to bash the Beowolf when it tried to pounce me before thrusting my sword to its face. The second Beo tried to lunge on me, I dashed back right on time and slashed it down. The next one raised its claw as it attempted to clobber me only for me to successfully block it with my shield before decapitating its arm with my sword then used it to stab the Beo in its chest.

Two Beos surrounded me on the front and the back, so I charged at the one on the front and hit its head with my shield then slashed the one on the back, I went back with the staggered former slicing its head off before turning around giving the latter a few more slashes.

I went on the offensive with the last two, slicing one of them down before it could even attack. I bashed the last one with my shield twice before shaving its head off.

I panted as I watch their corpses evaporate. I could feel the Great & Powerful Ozpin writing down his plans for me while he takes yet another sip of his coffee.

"That was amazing!" A friendly voice praised.

I turned around and saw Pyrrha walking toward me. That's a relief, not only I'll be on her team, but I'm going to be her partner as well. Considering her past achievements and records, she's the ideal partner for getting me out alive in combat situations. The bad news was—she just saw me single-handedly slaughter a whole pack of Beowolves, giving her an impression of a competent Huntsman who didn't need help.

"Uhh, it's nothing! Really! They're just Beowolves, one of the weakest Grimm there is." I said, hoping it doesn't sound like a boast. "So—it's nothing to be impressed about... at all!"

She tilted her head in confusion before giving a giggle. "Come on, it's pretty impressive on how you handled them, most people could only take out a few before giving in. I was so worried that I was about to step in, but you held your ground and prevailed."

Wait, so you're telling me that if I had run and screamed for a little longer, I didn't have to deal with all of those stupid Beos alone?!

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. "Skills like those can only be acquired from such experiences."

"I learned from the best." I smiled. Gotta give to Dad, even if it's partially his fault that I am here. He still made sure I'm prepared, Huntsman or not.

"So I guess we're partners now." I pointed out.

"I guess we are. It's an honor to be fighting by your side, Jaune." Pyrrha said.

"Good to have you too. I needed someone of your talents." By that, I mean REALLY need.

She was flattered by that compliment that I could feel her blush.

"Let's get moving," I told her. "The temple shouldn't be far out."

She nodded as we headed north toward our objective.

They say that Pyrrha is the goddess of victory. If that's true, then I am very lucky to have her as a partner. A goddess guiding me to victory is something I need to get through Beacon in one piece.

Though if she really is a goddess, I hope she's more useful than the last one I got.

Freaking Aqua.  **[5]**

**=o=**

  1. _Despite what most people believe_ ,  _he actually drinks hot chocolate instead of coffee._
  2. _Although rare, there are a few students who died during the initiation at Beacon, either due to poor luck or stupidity, but mostly the latter_.
  3. _Headmaster Ozpin soon noticed this and immediately banned covering eyewear for the next initiation to 'preserve the unpredictability of team matchmaking'._
  4. _I actually witnessed him fleeing from the Beowolves. I simply chose not to intervene because I did not want to be paired with him at the time. Hence, why I ended up with Ruby._
  5. _Apparently, one of Jaune's former dates in his pre-Beacon life. He never formed a serious relationship with any of them._



* * *

Although I've visited several of them, I've never been fond of forests myself. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate their lush beauty. I'm talking about the thick ones where it is easier to get lost and are riddled with Grimm, those are types of places any person in their right mind wouldn't want to be at night, the Emerald Forest is becoming one of those places.

"So Jaune, where are you from?" Pyrrha asked, taking the point as we search the forest. Because of her being a superior fighter and probably have better Huntsman experience, it made sense for her to take the lead.

"Pucelle. It's an obscure and isolated county somewhere on the Gallican province. I don't blame you if you never heard it." I responded.

"Huh, Pucelle? I've been hearing that place a lot on the news lately. It's something about—a bandit lord, I think."

Oh crap, she's on to me! Better say something quick!

"So~, I heard you're from Mistral?" I said. She looked at me and nodded. "What can you tell me about it?" I then asked.

"Well, I cannot describe it in one sentence," Pyrrha said. "They say its place with rich culture and history. The landscape is pretty beautiful too, especially during autumn."

"That's nice," I said. "I've actually visited there a few times during vacations. I was just wondering what you have to say about it."

She smiled, seemingly forgetting about her musings about that fiasco, which is a relief.

We continued to trek through to the forest. It was mostly silent, with the sounds of footsteps only being heard, until we heard a gunshot in a distance.

"Did you hear that?" I questioned.

"Gunfire. It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy." Pyrrha stated.

We kept walking while I tried to track the source of the gunshot; I figured that teaming with the other pairs will increase our chances of survival. I got lost on my train of thought that my face ended up getting hit by a branch.

"Ow! Stupid—"

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha her turned back and came near me.

"It's nothing. Just got a little careless there, that's all." It wasn't something my aura couldn't handle, but getting smacked in the face even if you don't feel any pain is really irritating.

She sighed and turned back as I continued to follow her.

We soon heard another noise, this time it's the sound of a bush rattling. Pyrrha raised her fist as we came to a halt. We readied our weapons, scanning our surroundings before seeing a shaking bush.

"On your guard," Pyrrha advised. I positioned myself in a defensive stance.

We continued to stare at the bush before a pair of Ursa Minor came out, confirming our suspicions.

"You take the one on the right!" she said before we charged at our respective targets.

I took a moment to glance at Pyrrha as he charges to her kill. I lunged at the Ursa, bashing my shield to its head before cutting it down with a few slashes, making it fall as it vaporizes.

Pyrrha was just as done when I finished mine.

"See? You're a natural!" she praised. "With combat prowess like that, I'd say you'd make a great Huntsman."

It wasn't impressive as she described it. It was only a single Ursa. I could've waited for Pyrrha to get rid of hers before getting her to kill mine, but it wasn't the best course of action; I had to act out of instinct and avoid the possibility of serious injury even with large aura reserves, since they have a chance to fail inconveniently.  **[1]**

"Let's not celebrate just yet. We still have a temple to look for." I reminded.

"Right. The temple." she nodded.

With that, we resumed our hike. After a few more minutes of uneventful walking, we saw what appeared to be an entrance to a cave in a distance.

"Huh, a cave." Pyrrha turned to me and asked. "Want to go check it out?"

Since I was getting bored of walking through the forest and considering the possibility of the cave leading to something interesting, and maybe even the temple, I saw no reason why not to.

As we approached the cavern entrance, we saw primitive drawings on the walls depicting men armed with spears and bows engaging a giant scorpion, which may or may not be a Deathstalker.

"You think this is it?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. This doesn't look like a temple."

"Well, we headed north," I said while I looked at the ground and picked up the first stave I saw. "Did we?"

"I'm sure we did but…"

I pulled out a piece of cloth from my pocket which I prepared before the initiation in case of situations like this and wrapped it around the top of the stave. I picked up some coal and used them to put fire on my torch.

I looked again at the sinister, dark entryway. My conscience keeps telling me to turn back as danger lies within this cave, but I made up my mind and decided to go inside in case we find something. If movies taught me anything, it's that tombs and relics can be found in places like these. Let's just hope it wouldn't have to involve us getting chased by a giant boulder after we took out the prize. Granted movie logic is not reliable but it felt like a good idea at the time; besides, I have Pyrrha with me in case things go wrong.

"Temple or not, I'd say it's worth checking out." I declared. "We should find something here. Maybe it could lead us to the temple and even if we don't, we could always head back out."

She nodded as she followed me inside. I took the point because I was the one holding the torch.

If only I was aware of what was waiting for me, I would rather have continued to look for our way on the woods and even happily fight an Ursa Major with only my bare hands. There's an opportunity for a lame bear pun there, but I'm afraid I'll have to digress because I have standards.

The cave becomes increasingly darker the deeper we went, making me regret coming here but my urge to search for anything unusual told me to press forward.

I ended up tripping with my torch falling into a puddle of water; extinguishing it, making everything almost pitch black.

"You okay?" Pyrrha asked as I pushed myself back up.

"I'm fine."

"Did you feel that?"

Soul-crushing regret? If so, then yes.

"Feel what?" I asked while I pulled out my scroll and turning on its flashlight. I don't know why I bothered making the torch if I could have done this in the first place. Well, you gotta practice your survival skills sometimes, right?

"Feel something… warm." she said. I still have no clue what she's referring to.

I continued to lead on and found something glowing. We went to the place where the glowing is being held to investigate and saw a golden orb of sorts. My initial assessments almost led me to believe that this was the relic. Panning down my scroll flashlight, I saw a frightening sight of a large scorpion's face with all its eyes closed.

"Is that…?!" Pyrrha said as she reached for her sword.

…A Deathstalker?! No, that can't be it. Surely, a Grimm this huge and tough can't be allowed in an initiation for fresh recruits, no matter how ludicrously skilled students need to be in order to attend.  **[2]**  This has got to be some sort of prank Ozpin set to scare off students who attempted to explore this cave. It doesn't take a genius to know that only dead-serious Huntsmen and Huntresses go after these things.

The golden orb turned out to be a stinger for the scorpion. It opened all of its red and lifeless eyes, confirming that it is indeed a live Deathstalker. After seeing that, I made what I could only describe as the most un-masculine scream I've ever made on my entire life.

**=o=**

  1. _While aura is activated by default during tense combat situations, they have a rare chance of malfunctioning, thus not being able to protect the user from harm. This why Huntsmen are often encouraged not to be over-reliant on aura. I received the scar on my left eye because of this._
  2. _Professor Ozpin did not intend for the Deathstalker to be part of the initiation. He simply did not notice it get the past the security and forgot to dispatch it after a group of unfortunate students encountered it. Afterward, the cave where it was residing remained uncharted before being explored by Jaune and Pyrrha. When Ozpin realized this he disregarded it as another challenge the initiates have to confront._



* * *

We quickly stormed out of the cave, fleeing from the provoked Deathstalker. In all honesty, I'd take a huge boulder chasing us out instead of one angry, giant Grimm insect.

After getting out the entrance I panted while Pyrrha unsheathes her sword and shield, facing the entrance in case it comes out. I really should have listened to every red flag planted when entering that cave.

I prayed that the Deathstalker would take a hint and stay in its nest since its size should be too big fit out of the cave entrance, but unfortunately, it broke through it, showing its full glory.

I turned tail and tried to run but I looked back to see Pyrrha engaging the Deathstalker. I'm tempted to leave her fighting while I flee to safety, but I needed my partner alive if I were to pass the test and I wasn't going to take the chance of her dying.

"Jaune, would you help me out here?!" she called out while she blocked a claw with her shield. What does she think she's doing? A Grimm like that is too much even for a world-class champion like her; she's still a Huntress-in-training after all.

"Pyrrha, we can't take that thing down on our own! We need to get out of here find the others!" I argued, hoping she'd come to her senses.

She tried to hit it a few more times, only to find out that its exoskeleton was too thick to be penetrated, it was then she decided to take my advice and followed me as we routed out.

We ran as fast and hard as we could through the forest with the Deathstalker on our tails, crashing to everything it passed.

Eventually, we managed to find the temple, with two figures there already who happen to be Yang and the girl with the huge bow whose name I haven't got at that moment. As soon as we saw them I did not waste any more time and called them.

"A little help here?!" I yelled, still running from the Deathstalker.

They looked at each other for a moment before they both shrugged and stormed towards the giant scorpion, with Yang using her shotgun gauntlets to boost herself while the other girl grappled towards it.

We stopped and looked back as we watch Yang and her partner attack the Deathstalker for a second. "Go help them hold it off, I'll get the relic," I told Pyrrha.

She nodded as she once again unsheathed her shield and xiphos went to assist the duo in distracting the Deathstalker.

I sprinted toward the temple and saw that the 'relics' turned out to be chess pieces, which were standing on platforms, some of which were empty, indicating that others managed to find the temple before we did. The type of piece probably didn't matter aside from team formations and maybe meaningless symbolism. I took the piece which caught my attention the most, a golden knight piece to be exact.

I looked back to see Pyrrha, Yang and the bowed girl taking their time to fend off the Deathstalker. So far they still have yet to even weaken it, even with Pyrrha's skill and Yang's strength, it's clear that this wasn't going anywhere without some sort of strategy.

As I was about to call Pyrrha to tell her I got the relic and that we should leave, I heard Ruby's voice calling my name.

"Jaune!"

"Ruby?" I looked back and saw her from a nearby tree-branch before jumping off to my position.

She looked around and saw the ongoing battle between the three stoogettes and an overgrown bug that had no right to be as powerful as it should be.  **[1]**

"Is that Yang?" she asked, noticing her sister riding the scorpion while trying to punch through its abdomen while it chased Pyrrha and the bowed girl, with the latter shooting it with her pistol while running.

Okay, looking closer at the latter's gun bothered me. Why does her weapon's pistol mode have her blade pointing towards the user's face? You can easily mistake that she's about to stab her own face if it wasn't for the gun barrel on the crossguard.  **[2]**

"Yep," I replied.

She turned to the temple and saw the chess pieces standing on platforms. "This is the relics?" she questioned in disbelief.

"Mmm-hmm." I nodded.

"Huh." she grabbed the nearest piece, a golden rook, I think. "So what now?" she looked back at the trio fighting.

Before I was able to say something, an Ursa came out of the forest, swinging its claws. I was about to pull out my sword out of instinct but then I saw a pink spark coming from its back and saw Nora mounting on it before it fell to the ground.

I'm not kidding.

"Yee-haw!" she cried as she rolled off from the bear's back. "Aw~, it's broken." she then went to examine its neck. "Eww."

Ren showed up a moment later, panting and leaning at the Ursa's corpse. "Nora?" he took a few breaths. "Please… don't ever do that again." Unfortunately for him, she doesn't seem to have heard him because she was already at the temple when he said that. To be fair, I didn't notice her get here that quick either.

"Ooh~!" she stared at the golden knight piece. "A cute little pony! Yay!" she squealed as she took it then danced while holding it.

If I'm not mistaken, her taking the same piece as mine means that I'm going to be teammates with her and Ren, for better or for worse, hopefully, the former.

"NORA!" Ren yelled, calling her out.

Nora stopped. She giggled and had the piece fall from her head then catching. "Coming Ren!" she said with a salute before skipping to her partner.

"Did she just ride in on an Ursa?" I asked Ruby, making sure that I am not seeing things.

"I… think so," she replied.

I turned my head and was startled to see Nora was beside me. "GAH!" I screamed. Wasn't she supposed to be with Ren by now?

"So, what relic did you get?!" she questioned.

I hesitantly reached out my pocket and showed her the golden knight piece I took. "Oh? This? Well, seeing as you took the same piece, I guess we're teammates now."

She was blinking for a moment before bursting out in excitement. "YES! YES! YES! First, I get to be partners with my BFF, now I'm teammates with the Defender of Podunk himself! This is the best day ever!" she exclaimed. "I promise I will not to let you down!"

I could only give a nervous chuckle. Apparently, I'm now teammates with a hyperactive adoring fan and her quiet friend who speaking of which, ran to our position, still panting.

Thinking about it, everyone here came with a partner except Ruby. It's unlikely that she went all this way without one.

"Hey Ruby, where's your partner?" I asked.

"Well…" she said as she slowly faced the sky.

I looked above and saw Weiss hanging from a Nevermore which is another Grimm that shouldn't be on this initiation. Calling it a giant Grimm bird doesn't fully describe it, that thing is tougher than it looks. I heard that it usually takes more than three professional Huntsmen teams to get rid of it and that's only with minimum casualties. The fact that it's airborne only makes it a bigger pain to deal with. I was more disturbed by its presence than the fact Weiss was in danger. Where are these large-class Grimm coming from?  **[3]**

"How could you leave me?!" Weiss yelled down to Ruby as she tries to hold on one of the Nevermore's talon.

"I said 'jump'!" Ruby yelled back.

"She's gonna fall!" Nora exclaimed while she stuck her thumbs to her index fingers to make some binoculars.

"She'll be fine," Ruby replied.

Weiss grip then fails her as was now dropping from the sky.

"She's falling." Ren nonchalantly said, pointing out the obvious.

 

Without thinking, I ran to where she was falling and attempted to catch her bridal style. While I did manage to catch her, she ended up crashing into me and I tumbled to the ground thanks to the impact of her momentum. If it weren't for our auras, I wouldn't be able to use my arms for a few days and Weiss would have a broken back.

"Oww~" I moaned.

"Ugh~ Thanks a lot, hero." she groaned in pain.

"Yeah, don't mention it," I replied, returning the sarcasm.

We recovered after a few seconds, my arms still felt a little sore, though. I pushed myself back up and went back to the others. Pyrrha and the bowed girl retreated from the Deathstalker while Yang was still trying to find a way to kill it.

"It's no use!" the bowed girl said. "It's tougher than it looks!"

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby boasted. "I'm coming, Yang!" she then charged toward the Deathstalker.

"Ruby, no!" I screamed. It was too late, she fired her sniper to boost herself to the scorpion, only to get swiped off when she got close enough.

"Ruby!" Yang cried out.

Ruby got up. "Don't worry, sis! I got this!" she took a few shots on its skull, as usual, it didn't do jack. "…Or maybe not." the Deathstalker was provoked and gave a monstrous roar.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Yang said as turned around then ran back toward the group.

Ruby followed her, sheathing her scythe. The Nevermore flew in and cowed. Firing several sharp feathers at their area. One of them managed to impale Ruby's cloak, trapping her.

"Ruby!" Yang halted and rushed back to her sister, helped her struggle out of the feather.

Unfortunately, the Deathstalker was getting near them. Yang tried to slow it down by firing at it with one of her gauntlets but it was no use.

"Oh for the love of—!" I heard Weiss yell before she used a glyph to fly off to the sisters. She used her rapier to stab the scorpion's gland when it was about to hit Ruby. Then she fired a round of ice dust to freeze it neat as you please.

"Weiss?" Ruby opened her eyes and gazed at the Ice Queen.

"You are so childish, Ruby!" Weiss called out, pulling her rapier from the ice she casted. "…And dim-witted... and hyperactive. And don't even get me started on your fighting style." she took a deep breath "And I suppose I can be a bit...difficult."

Gee, don't you think?

She continued "But if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer."

"Huh, coming from you, that actually sounded nice," Yang commented, speaking for my thoughts exactly.

"Can it, I'm doing this for the best of us," Weiss replied.

"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I could do this." Ruby spoke up.

Weiss stares at her for a moment. "You're fine." she stated before walking away.

Ruby sighed in relief, she then looked at the Deathstalker to see it in its frozen state.

Yang went in closer to her and gave her a sisterly hug.

I smiled at the sight but then I heard Big Bird **[4]**  caw again as it flew around above us, reminding me that I need to get out of this mess.

"Alright, everyone gather around," I ordered before all seven rounded up. "Does each pair have their relics?" I inquired as I showed a golden knight piece.

"Oh yeah. Blake, you still have it?" Yang asked her partner.

"Here it is." the bowed girl—Blake I think, answered, showing her golden rook piece.

"I still have mine—I mean ours!" Nora bought out hers.

"Yes, we do. Why did you ask?" Ruby questioned, pulling out another golden rook piece.

"Then we got what we came for. We can't keep wasting our time with two large Grimm any longer, we already got our objective, now it's time for us to get out of here." I told them. Truth is, I could have left with my team once we got our relics but I could use some extra protection and manpower that I chose to wait for the others.

"Huh, that's actually not a bad idea, Arc." Weiss of all people concurred, seemingly impressed.

Did the ice queen just compliment me? I must be hearing things. If not, I guess there is hope for her after all.

"He's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs. There's no point fighting these things." Ruby asserted.

Thank you, Ruby.

We overheard the Deathstalker's cries as it was now breaking from the ice. Signaling us to make haste.

"Time we left!" Ren said.

"Right." Ruby nodded. "Let's go!"

**=o=**

  1. _Considering that the Deathstalker has been in the cave for a long period of time, its safe to assume that it has grown to be the most intelligent Grimm in the forest, thus becoming the most dangerous threat during the initiation._
  2. _It's worth noting that the Gambol Shroud does not necessarily need its blade to be adjusted in order to use its pistol function but it has to in order to properly aim down the pistol's sight. Still, she could have chosen a better position for the blade when using the weapon as a firearm._
  3. _Once again, the fortifications fail to prevent another unauthorized Grimm from entering the forest during initiation. Despite its status, Beacon was not exactly known for its security._
  4. _Jaune's nickname for the Nevermore during the initiation, named after a character from a popular children's program._



* * *

All eight of us left the forest, unfortunately, Big Bird followed us as we were approaching a ruin before the cliff. We hid behind some stone blocks as the Nevermore stood above it before screeching at us.

You have got to be kidding me right now, you stubborn little pigeon.

To make things worse, the Deathstalker caught up, breaking through trees as it exits the forest.

"What do we do now, Jaune?" asked Pyrrha who was holding her rifle.

"Run like hell!" I screamed.

Pyrrha followed me as we rushed straight into the ruins. The Nevermore shot some sharpened feathers before Nora managed to dodge them all then used her grenade launcher to distract it. I looked back and saw the Deathstalker getting closer and closer, causing me to run faster.

"Go, go!" Pyrrha said as we reached the bridge, stopping to temporarily suppress the Deathstalker that Blake and Weiss may catch up.

We continued to cross the bridge when Big Bird came and crashed at the bridge, splitting the party with Pyrrha, Blake, and Weiss on the other side, fighting the Deathstalker.

I couldn't go on without my partner, someone needed to get Pyrrha out of there. "We gotta get over there, they need help!"

"We got it!" Ruby said as she and her sister jumped toward the gap. Ruby hit the Deathstalker on the face as she unsheathes her scythe then slashing it a few times before dodging its claw. Which ended up pushing Pyrrha to the edge, making her fall.

"Oops!" Ruby said.

"Pyrrha!" I yelled.

Luckily she quickly recovered and went near a pillar, she slowly slid down before launching herself on to the Nevermore. She gave the giant Grimm bird some slashes before leaping off and landing safely into a platform.

Me, Ren and Nora quickly ran to her position. Ren climbed and pulled a wall-run to the platform while Nora used a grenade jump, unharmed either due to her aura or for using non-lethal explosives.  **[1]**  This is where my limitations become more apparent, although I did my best to keep myself prepared, I still lacked a soaring strategy without the proper gadgets.

"Uhh, guys?"

"What is it, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked looking down to me.

"I hate to break it to you but…" Before I was able to finish what I was saying, I heard Big Bird screech as it goes closer to the tower putting my team's focus on it by trying to gun it down.

Yeah, I'm also the only person here without a ranged weapon, I regret not 'borrowing' one of Rose's guns before getting to Beacon. I barely had any problems using a sword and a pistol at the same time; why did I forget to take one with me?

The Nevermore crashed through the tower, making everyone fall. I screamed for dear life until I suddenly stopped falling and found myself floating before getting thrown into the air then dropping into solid ground near my team. I checked my body to see if I was alright, I had no clue what just happened.

"In case you're wondering, that was my semblance! I can control magnetism, so I pulled you on your armor when you were falling." Pyrrha clarified.

Thank goodness, if it weren't for that I'd be a goner. "Well, then thanks."

"You're most welcome." she replied with a smile.

"We're right behind you!" Nora said with a salute.

I smiled back to them. However, we still have a bird to deal with so we didn't have time to discuss semblances at the moment. Problem was we lacked a decent strategy against it especially on a place like this. If anything, Ruby's team would be much more appropriate dealing with the Nevermore as they are much more mobile and have the better skill-sets to counter it. The best thing, for now, is to continue gunning it down and wait for it to try and come near us. Having someone jump on its back again is impractical especially when we are trying to shoot it down because it could hit them and cause them to fall.

"Keep firing!" I ordered as I raised my fist then pointing at Big Bird while staying behind their rears. They obeyed as they fired their guns at it. It angrily shrieks as it flies toward us again, which gives us the chance to melee it.

"Nora!" I called.

We went out of the way as Nora changed her launcher into a hammer and uses it to slam on Big Bird's face, causing it to fall down.

I exhaled out of relief before Big Bird soared back and grabbed me from behind with its talons then flying away.

"JAUNE!" I heard Pyrrha yell.

Big Bird sent me higher. Ruby's team was done getting rid of the Deathstalker and noticed me being grabbed by the Nevermore while it was flying off, they tried to save me by trying to shoot the bird while my team was doing the same.

Bullets ran past me as I continue to hold on the Big Bird's talons. "Stop it! You're gonna make me fall!" I yelled before they ceased firing.

I was too busy trying to find a way to get myself out of here that I barely felt any air sickness during flight. I thought of waiting for it to take me into its nest but I am not going to risk myself fighting a bunch of baby Grimm birds while dealing with this one alone, plus its likely far away that I'd be presumed dead when I get back. So I quickly thought up for a better idea and found one. I'm not sure if it's going to work nor would it end well but considering how desperate I was, it was better than doing nothing.

I struggled out of the Big Bird's grasp, I almost fell after doing so but I held on to the talons, then I started climbing up to the bird's back, it was tricky because the bird would shake every couple of seconds but I managed to get on to its back as I climbed near its head.

Okay Jaune, This can't be that hard. It's like riding a pony! Remember how embarrassing that once went? No, can't think about that right now, I have to live! I internally said.

I gripped the fur of its head as I use it to control its flight. It took some strength to do it, but seeing that it works, I was able to use it to my advantage. I made it fly towards the top of the cliff as I unsheathe my sword and stabbed its head a few times causing it to descend faster. As it reached near the edge of the cliff, I sliced Big Bird's head off then jumped to safety.

I panted heavily as stared down the Nevermore as it turns to no more. I anticipated vomiting but I didn't throw up for once, probably because it was a short ride. If this was supposed to be just a test, I cannot imagine how actual missions goes. This is only my second day and I already had to deal with two large Grimm for Pete's sake.

I stood up and walked toward the edge of the cliff and looked at the figures who were all gazing at me and the Nevermore's dead body.

We stared in silence for a few seconds before I could hear Nora clapping as loud as she could so I could hear her from a distance.

"I knew you could do it!" she cheered. I noticed everyone looking at her for a few seconds before joining her applause.

I could only sigh. I did it again, didn't I?

**=o=**

  1. _Most likely the latter. There are some specialized explosives made for safe 'grenade jumping'—for the lack of a better word. Which are used to launch its users into the air without suffering physical harm._



* * *

I sat on a rock, waiting to reunite with the others, only for the Great & Powerful Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch to have found me first.

"Mr. Arc, knowing your family, I expected great things from you but this is quite a surprise," Ozpin said. "I could only name a few times initiates actually managed to impress me."

I wanted to ask him why in the name of the Light Brother's holy babysitter was a Nevermore and a Deathstalker doing there but I'll have to ask that for another time, I had to make sure Ozpin doesn't get any wrong ideas, even if he already has.

"I just did what everyone would have done, Headmaster," I said, which isn't exactly a lie, of course, your survival instincts would act up if a giant bird grabbed you and tried to make you its next dinner.  **[1]**  "I couldn't have done it without the others."

"I appreciate the modesty, it is good that you acknowledge the efforts of your fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses but do not forget that your skill and leadership made your success possible," he stated. "I must admit, the Nevermore and the Deathstalker were not meant to be in premises…"

I knew it.

"…but you have proven that you are indeed a capable Huntsmen. I've been wanting to get rid of that Deathstalker for a long time and I am grateful that you managed to get rid of it."

Shouldn't you be saying this Ruby and her team? They're the ones responsible for that bug's demise; all I did was wake the damn thing up. The Nevermore, on the other hand, was dead mostly because I killed it out of self-defense and most of the damage was caused by my team.

He took a sip then continued. "You have a bright future ahead of you, Mr. Arc. Please, keep doing on what you do."

I really hope this 'bright future' doesn't involve dealing with worse Grimm, this initiation alone was too much to have almost made me wet my pants.

The rest of the gang made it out and walked toward us. "Ah, you all finally made it," Ozpin said as he and Miss Goodwitch turned to the group.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out, running toward me. "I was so worried about you! Are you alright?" she asked.

Well aside from that I had to cope with the fact that I was almost bird food and was still recovering from minor air sickness, I was mostly unscathed. "I'm fine, Pyrrha. Don't worry, it's all over, we won the day." I said, pulling out the 'relic' and giving it a toss.

Nora gave me a quick yet tight hug before stepping off. "You were so great! You flew on a Nevermore and killed it while landing with style!" she cheered. "First, the bandit lord El Segadore and now a Nevermore! Is there anything you cannot do?!"

Good gods, this wouldn't be so bad if she didn't have to bring up the former, especially that loud.

"Wait that was you?" Yang suddenly asked as she started to grin.

Dammit, Nora!

"Of course, he is! Didn't you know, he was the slayer of the infamous reaper of Vacuo; the Defender of Podunk himself! Jaune Arc!" Nora answered. The sisters were astounded while Weiss raised an eyebrow and Blake has the same unimpressed poker-face as usual.

Terrific, now more people know of my fraudulent reputation I got from that embarrassing day, I was already happy with people being oblivious to who I was.

"You were that guy?! Oh, oh, please I got to have your autograph!" Ruby squealed. And there it is, another cheery-girl on the fan club.

Miss Goodwitch then spoke up. "Students." Everyone turned to her to pay attention. "Now that you're all here, I want all of you to report to the auditorium by noon for the announcement of teams. In the meantime, take some rest; you've all earned it."

We nodded before she walked away while Ozpin gave me a wink before following her out.

"Can you believe it, Yang?! I got to fight with an actual hero!" Ruby said.

"Easy there sis, I think you made him a little uneasy," Yang said as she grinned at me. Oh, was she so right about that one.

I hate to say that they'll soon be disappointed once they find out that my so-called 'heroism' wasn't what it turned out to be.

Pyrrha then patted my shoulder. "You did well," she said. "Don't worry, I know the pressures of having such fame."

Well, she had been the champion of Mistral's regional tournament four times in a row, I guess she dealt with worse. "Thanks, Pyrrha," I said.

We took an hour to unwind before gathering at the cafeteria for lunch. We all sat by together eating. I ordered dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets myself. Don't ask, they're just that delicious.

"Alright now that everyone is here, let us finally introduce ourselves to each other," Ruby called, standing up. "Let's start with me. Hello, my name is Ruby Rose!"

"I'm Yang! Ruby's sister and I like to punch and pun!" she said, pointing her thumb to herself before sitting down.

"Weiss Schnee. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintances." Weiss said with a bow, smiling for once.

"Blake. Blake Belladonna. It's… nice to meet you." Blake introduced herself before immediately sitting down.

"Pyrrha Nikos, but I guess you all already know that," Pyrrha said before nodding her head toward me.

"Jaune Arc. A pleasure to meet you all." I stood up introduced myself.

"And I'm Nora Valkyrie! This is my best friend, Lie Ren!"

"Hello everyone and sorry if she bothers you, she's just that excited, that's all," Ren said.

"It's fine," I reassured. "I live with seven sisters, I think I can handle her."

Now that everyone's here, it's time to for me to learn of their abilities, it's important to know your allies as much as you need to know your enemies.

"Hey Pyrrha, you said your semblance can control magnetism, would you care to share?" I asked.

"That seems fine." she nodded. "Okay everyone, let's discuss our semblance, mine is polarity." she demonstrates by making her spoon float.

"Does that mean you can control poles?!" Ruby asked, missing the point.

"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism!" Weiss angrily corrected.

"I can also use it to retrieve my shield and javelin after throwing it. It took a lot of practice and patience to properly control it, though," she said as she slowly puts the spoon back down.

"That's cool!" Ruby said. "My semblance is speed! I can move from one place to another with a blink of an eye!" she chooses not to demonstrate it though, as it might cause an accident in the cafeteria. Or maybe she did and we were just too slow to notice?  **[2]**

"My semblance are glyphs," Weiss said. "They can be used as solid platforms and can control motion."

"Neat. My semblance makes me hit harder when I get damaged." Yang stated.

"That's cool! Mine makes me stronger when I get hit with electricity!" Nora said.

"I don't recommend trying it out right now though," Ren warned.

Seeing how she just killed an Ursa and smacked a Nevermore on its face without even using her semblance, I agree that it was a good idea not to.

"Anyway, my semblance mask negative emotions. It may not look like much but it makes you invulnerable from Grimm." Ren said.

Huh, that sounds practical enough for me to take advantage off. So far, I'm really liking this team.

"I can make shadow clones of myself. Keeps me from getting seen." Blake said.

"What about you, Jaune? What can you tell us about your semblance?" Ruby asked.

Crap, I was worried I had to answer ever since I bought this up. Which is unfortunate because Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, and Nora seemed eager to hear about it.

"Oh yeah… it's kinda funny actually." I hesitantly said.. "I… don't have any… Really, I never unlocked my semblance."

Yeah, that's right, The Defender of Podunk himself who was apparently good enough for Beacon—has no semblance. Your semblance defines who you are as a Huntsman and I am literally nothing. I don't know what my semblances is supposed to be. Dad's semblance has his use his survival instincts at its fullest, Mom is almost fireproof, Bleu can analyze for strengths and weaknesses of a person or creature, Rose can shoot multiple targets with deadly accuracy and Rouge is immune to loud noises. I wouldn't be surprised if mine turns out to be comically useless. There is nobody to blame for this other than myself, if I did have a desire to become a Huntsman I would have unlocked my semblance years ago.

They all stared at me confusedly before Nora began speaking.

"That's… actually amazing! So what you're telling me you can do amazing things without needing a semblance?! Awesome!"

Sigh, there she goes again. I guess at this point anything disappointing about me is another excuse for her to idolize me.

"We'll have to fix that," Ren said. "A person's semblance is important. While your skills are superb, you'll be even more proficient in combat."

"I agree. I'm looking forward to discovering it." Pyrrha added.

"Thanks, guys… I really appreciate it." I said as I went back into eating my meal.

Later, we went to the auditorium and placed our respective chess pieces on their platforms on the stage. Looking at the pieces makes me hope I'm wrong about the thought of us being in an elaborate chess game with Ozpin and his students being the players and pieces respectively.

We stood back with the other teams as the Great & Powerful Ozpin starts his speech.

"Remnant is a dangerous place…"

Understatement of the year.

"Which is why people call for Huntsmen like us, but even Huntsmen are just as vulnerable to the beasts they dedicated their lives into fighting against. However, with the combined strengths of multiple Huntsmen, it creates a formidable force that can potentially take on the worst of the Grimm. But to ensure victory, a team must possess trust, fellowship, and coordination. It is now the time you start exercising bonds with one another as now we shall begin the declaration of this year's freshmen teams."

He started to announce the teams of the initiates, giving them team names that are formed from the first letter of each member's name. (which is either their given name or surname, whatever that makes a good acronym.) The person who makes up the first letter assumes the role of the team leader; in one funny case:

"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY (Ruby) Led by…"

Cue drum roll.

"…Ruby Rose!"

Badum-Tss!

But seriously, that's really her team name and she is indeed leading it, and there weren't any drums. It's too much of a coincidence that she gets to lead a team that is almost named after her, it's almost as if Ozpin just made her the leader for the team name alone.  **[3]**

"I'm so proud of you!" Yang hugged her sister.

It was our turn then. So we stepped onto the stage and stood before Ozpin as he officially announces my team.

"And finally, Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR (Juniper)."

As soon as I heard our team name, I knew what I was in for.

"Led by… Jaune Arc."

A round of applause came as Pyrrha gave me a friendly shoulder bump, I nervously smiled back at her. Nora gave Ren a hug before moving to give one big group hug to the newly formed team.

"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin commended.

Yeah, thanks a lot.

"We're going to be the best team ever!" Nora said before she stopped hugging.

I continued to smile and chuckle anxiously. I guess if it keeps me off the front-lines it won't be that bad.

"Looks like things are shaping to be an… interesting year. Enjoy your stay at Beacon, I wish you all the best." Ozpin said leaving the stage.

Miss Goodwitch then walks in and took the mic. "Now that the teams are officially formed, you may now vacate to your dormitories. You will be using your own scrolls to assign yourself to a dorm. If you do not own a scroll, we will provide one for you.  **[4]**  Classes will begin tomorrow morning. Be sure to check your schedules and don't be late. You are dismissed." Miss Goodwitch said before concluding the assembly.

**=o=**

  1. _Jaune is obviously making a metaphorical statement here, the Grimm don't eat nor do they need to. They simply attack sentient beings as part of their programming. The closest they get to hunger is their attraction to souls._
  2. _She didn't. Otherwise, she would have left a trail of rose petals on her position._
  3. _While it's not actually uncommon for team names to be pronounced after their leaders, Coral Grimes and Ash Davis of Team CARL and Team ASHE respectively for example. Headmaster Ozpin had a tendency to take every opportunity to assign leadership to a student that would give their team a befitting name, regardless of their leadership skill and he refuses to break the tradition of having all teams named after colors. One infamous example is Cyan Boose of Team CYAN, who lacked any leadership skills of any kind, causing his team to be one of the most chaotic teams on Beacon._
  4. _They're not exactly free. They deliberately choose not to mention that acquiring scrolls from the Beacon staff increases the student's tuition fee._



* * *

We went to the residence hall and assigned ours next door to Team RWBY's dorm. After all the stuff I've been through for the past few hours, I'm really grateful to have the entire day for myself.

"Oh, finally!" I said as I removed my armor before lying down the nearest bed.

"Yipee! We're gonna be roomies with The Defender of Podunk and the Goddess of Victory!" Nora excitedly said as she started to jump down her bed.

"Nora please… you might break the bed." Ren sighed, sitting down on his bed before yawning and passing out of exhaustion.

It looks like I'll be sharing a room with two girls for four years, I would have found this to be weird and uncomfortable if it weren't for the fact that I live with seven sisters and had to share a bed with them a few times.

Pyrrha went to take a shower while I went to take a walk around Beacon to clear my mind; Nora stayed at the dorm to watch over Ren.

While I was walking in the hall two boys were leaving their dorms when they saw me in my Pumpkin Pete hoodie. One of them looks and acts like an orange-haired stereotypical jock straight out of a bad clichéd high-school movie while the other looked like one of Rouge's ex-boyfriends except his tea-green mohawk looks awfully ridiculous even by punk standards. If I remember correctly, they're Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush from Team CRDL (Cardinal).

"Nice jacket loser." the brownish orange-haired one—Cardin, said while he and his goon laughed as they went to the other way. "Man, what a dork."

Which reminds me, I really need to buy some new clothes.

When taking a stroll around the academy, I took time to familiarize myself with Beacon's layout so I won't get lost again like yesterday. After doing so, I finally stopped at the courtyard and sat at one of the benches. I downloaded the official Beacon Academy app on my scroll so I'll be able to access some important information available to students such as news, schedules, guides, maps, and others.

I decided to contact Bleu again and update her about the whole situation. It's still fairly noon and Mantle is around the same time-zone as Vale, so she should be taking a lunch break from her classes.

"Well, look whose still breathing. Not that it surprises me or anyone for that matter." Bleu deadpanned after she appeared on my screen. "So, how did it go?"

"It was a freaking disaster; I was lucky to pass the whole thing and live," I said with blunt honesty. The whole thing could have been smoother and easier, had Ozpin been more considerate with the Grimm there.

"Oh Jaune, I'm sure it wasn't that bad.."

"Was a Nevermore and a Deathstalker supposed to be there?"

She stopped grinning. "Wait, what? You're kidding aren't you?"

I answered by glaring straight at her.

"Oh. That's strange, they shouldn't be sending Grimm that daunting for initiates, I know they Beacon can demanding when accepting students but they're not supposed to make it that arduous for initiates…"

Well, Ozpin did say earlier that they were not supposed to be in there but did nothing about it probably because they made the initiation less boring for him to watch.

"Or is security still terrible after all these years?" she questioned.

I raised my brow at that. "Were they really that bad?"

"Oh, nothing. Anyway, you did manage to get rid of them did you?"

I took a deep breath. "Yes. I killed the Nevermore. No, my other friends were the one that got rid of the Deathstalker."

"You did? That's great! I guess you really can handle more serious Grimm after all! I knew you had the strength of a Huntsman in you."

"Well actually, my team absorbed most of its damage and I had to go for the killing blow because it grabbed me." I pointed out.

"And that's your excuse? If you managed to defeat a Nevermore, then you have already proven yourself to be capable. Stop trying to deny it. You could have been a decent help in my missions with Rose and Father but instead, you keep persisting on trivial missions that only involved a few Beowolves."

I rolled my eyes at this, Bleu is helping Ozpin dig my grave now.

"What about your team? What can you tell me about them?" she inquired.

"Apparently I was good enough to become the leader of my team. Team JNPR. Yay."

"Really? That's wonderful! Mother and Father would be so proud when they hear about this!"

"Bleu please, I'm still trying to get used to this."

"Don't worry, you'll do fine, you did manage to beat me in chess remember?"

Only once and I didn't know what I was doing at the time. "Yeah…"

"So, who are the unfortunate ones who have fallen to the tyranny of my dear little brother?"

"Are you familiar with the girl on the cereal box I always ate?"

"You're not talking about Pyrrha Nikos, are you? You never bothered with Regional Tournaments."

"I don't, but now I'm paired with her as my partner. She's surprisingly friendly of someone of her skill and reputation." I stated as I feel my cheeks burn when thinking about here.

Bleu grinned when she noticed me flush. "Oh~ sounds like someone's very lucky."

I felt my cheeks become warmer, slightly irritated by her teasing. "Please don't. I've only met her yesterday and there's nothing happening between us."

She laughed. "Calm down Jaune, it was only a joke. Though you two sound perfect for each other. I hope you won't reject her like your previous dates."

I groaned. She really had to bring that up, doesn't she? Bleu still has the smart-mouth of an Arc while legitimately being the smart one among the siblings.

"Okay, I think I had enough. What about your other two teammates?" she asked, returning to the subject at hand.

"Well, there's this one girl, Nora, she's a very big fan of mine because of what I did the other day and she's hyperactive that I think her best friend looked tired all the time, who is Ren, another teammate of mine. Don't worry they're all competent in combat."

"Wow, sounds like the Headmaster got himself a powerhouse."

While I'm grateful for having powerful teammates, I'm worried that people, particularly Ozpin, would take advantage of this; my undeserved reputation doesn't help at all.

"Whatever you're doing, I wish you the best. Remember not to neglect your studies. As cliché as it may sound, knowledge is the key is to success."

Didn't Ozpin say that knowledge could only carry me so far? "I'll keep that in mind."

"I can only hope. Keep in touch. Oh, by the way, Viola has been asking if you know where your childhood scrapbook is. I'm starting to think yo—" With that, I ended the call. I'm not going to even acknowledge that, the call already ended for me.

I continued to get comfortable and looked at the bright side. I won't be experiencing any bowel-loosening terrors for a while since the following days would consist of more typical, boring school stuff with combat training being the only thing that involves fighting; it'll actually be a nice change of pace.

Oh Beacon, what else do you have to offer?

* * *

_Editorial Note:_

_Before we conclude this chapter, I would like to add an extract from Headmaster Ozpin recorded sometime after the initiation. These extracts provide additional background information which Jaune either missed or ignored due to obliviousness or simply because it didn't concern him that much._

_This excerpt details Headmaster Ozpin's thoughts on the freshmen's first two days at Beacon; it may also intrigue anyone who's interested in his inner-workings and motives during his feud with Salem._

_Because of the contents of these documents, such as the supernatural elements and the revelation that the Grimm Wars was being fought in the shadows prior to becoming a full-scale conflict, these documents were not declassified until his secrets were eventually exposed publicly. Normally, people won't believe in such things but after Salem and the rise of several cults with access to eldritch powers, it's safe to assume that they'll believe almost anything nowadays._

The Ozpin Logs: A Promising Year

For ages I have been transferring myself from one body to another; I assumed many different identities, from an unassuming beggar to a monarch of one of the four kingdoms. I have rallied armies, ended wars, built several academies dedicated to fighting Grimm and trained generations of Huntsmen hoping to finally turn the tides of this miserable conflict the Gods sent me to.

But alas, it was never enough.

Sometimes I cannot help myself but wonder if Qrow was right with his notion that this entire war is hopeless and that Remnant is doomed that I can only delay the inevitable at best. But I have forbidden myself to give up, I have an obligation to the Gods that their creation will not succumb into hands of Chaos, no matter how slim the odds that may favour me. Nothing is truly hopeless, after all.

It is another school year at Beacon and comes yet another batch of Huntsmen-in-training. In all honesty, I was having trouble attempting to display enthusiasm over the new freshmen as I have seen too many good students turned Huntsmen die because of me. I am afraid that these children may likely follow the same fate. However, there are two remarkable students that have caught my attention.

The first one, named Ruby Rose. The daughter of two of my former students, Taiyang Xiao Long and Summer Rose, rest her soul. She greatly resembles her mother, even having her silver-eyes.  **[1]**  We found her when we were almost close to tracking down who what we believed was one of Salem's pawns; I witnessed her skilfully defeat a group of criminals with the use of a scythe, one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed, thanks to being mentored by Qrow himself. The problem was that she was a couple of years too young to attend Beacon. Nevertheless, because of her prowess and enthusiasm, I deliberately chose to bend the rules for her. She was very excited to have finally had the privilege to study here and I do hope that she could make herself useful in the events yet to come, it was gratifying to know that silver-eyed warriors are still existent as I could use one in a time like this.

The other one is… more complicated to say the least. This one is name is Jaune Arc, the only son of one of my favourite pupils, Caiaphas Arc. Prior to Jaune's attendance, Caiaphas has sent three out of his seven daughters to study at Beacon; Bleu Arc was a valedictorian and became a teacher at Mantle's Huntsman Academy; Rose Arc was skilful in different types of firearms; And Rouge, despite her… disciplinary records she has the aptitude become a competent Huntress but sadly her Huntsman licence was stripped from her after an incident, which I cannot say I blame her though, she made it clear that she was more of a free spirit. Jaune, on the other hand, is a very strange one. He has shown an incredible skill of slaying several Beowolves and managed to manoeuvre a Nevermore before slaying it, prior to that, he even managed to intercept a major bandit lord and killed an Ursa Major with only a basic sword and shield, yet despite all of this he attempted to downplay all of these when discussed. He reminds me a lot of his father during his youth, always trying to find the safest way out while genuinely becoming one of the best Huntsman this school has to offer, even if it was not his initial intention. He does soon become more confident in his skills and became genuinely heroic and I do hope his son does the same. I can even recall employing his ancestor, Harry Arc, during the Great War when I was with my previous body, King Phadrig VII, like his descendents he was never keen with danger; his son and grandson, Rhysmond and Edwin Arc, also inherited this trait. Reluctance and fearfulness seem to run on Arc blood but so does great potential.

Remember, as of this recording, it is only Jaune's second day here, his will and courage should develop eventually. He'll soon learn that his gifted talents are not be wasted because he prefers to be idle during these dark times; all he needs is a little guidance. In the meantime, I will continue to watch his scholarship here with great interest.

I have made both these children leader of their respective teams. I must admit I originally made the decision for my own amusement; I was hoping to receive some entertainment out of Jaune's cowardice and Ruby's limited leadership experience to cope from the losing war with Salem, but after witnessing this two handle themselves in the initiation, I may have made the right choice.

I pray that these two unusual children may soon lead us to the happy ending we fought an eternity for.

**=o=**

  1. _It is said that those born with silver eyes are destined to become great warriors. Grimm were believed to fear these warriors because of their supposed ability to strike them down with a single look._



* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11/11/2018
> 
> Nice try, Rooster Teeth.


	3. First Daze

 

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**First Daze**

* * *

  

> " _They say that victory comes from a small soul. If only those small souls have bigger brains."_
> 
> **_-Gilbert Vermilion, Political Analyst_ **

 

I woke up to the unholy noises of the scroll's alarm and Nora's sugar-induced shouting. While it slightly irritated me, I'm rather thankful for it because I otherwise might have overslept and ended up skipping the first day of class, which won't put me in a good position. I also have been trying to overcome this habit for a while now so maybe it's my chance to finally get better sleeping patterns thanks to the class schedule requiring me everyone to rise up early in the morning. But as someone who loves sleep, this is going to take some time to get used to.

And by the way, this was nothing compared to some of the more...let's say—unorthodox methods of waking me up from my mischievous sisters.

"Good Morning, Fearless Leader!" Nora greeted, already on her uniform.

Little did she know how ironic her use of 'fearless' actually was.

So begins the first days of classes, where they would either be intriguing and provide helpful tips on how to be a Huntsman and live past the age of sixty, or bore me into sleeping or watching the clock because it's freaking school and boredom is always inevitable. Either way, it's better than running, screaming and getting everyone to kill the Grimm for you.

I looked around and saw that Pyrrha was also dressed, Ren too, after he left the bathroom with a bath basket on his hand, meaning I was the only one who wasn't prepared yet. I got up and took a shower before putting on my uniform. For breakfast I took some dumplings I took out from a Mistrali restaurant when visiting Vale yesterday. After I was done taking my morning meal and brushing my teeth, I stood in the middle of the dorm and gathered everyone on the team for the first meeting of Team JNPR.

Since I don't want my ass open in combat, I needed to persuade my team to be useful and cooperative with my orders. Pyrrha is a great fighter, but she is too used to fighting solo and was too overconfident with the Deathstalker yesterday, Nora's excited personality and strength mean she has the tendency to get aggressively reckless, and someone has to make sure Ren's somewhat limited stamina is managed wisely. If given proper direction, this team would be almost unstoppable and I don't have to worry much about myself, without it, working with these three would be chaotic at best.

"Alright, now that we are all here…" I cleared my throat. "It's now our third day in Beacon and after yesterdays… events. I just wanted to say I am grateful to have you as my teammates."

"Why, thank you," Pyrrha said, covering her cheek with one of her hands.

"Aww~" Nora commented.

"No problem," Ren said with a nod.

I gave a faint smile at them. "But like The Gre—… I mean the Headmaster said, we need to learn how to coordinate with each other to make this work. We may have proven to be efficient individual warriors; Pyrrha is a famed champion, Ren is swift, Nora is a tough cookie—and I… am basically me."

"A brave hero who ain't afraid of no-nothin'!" Nora said in a somewhat sassy tone.

"Thank you, Nora," I responded. "But they don't mean anything in the team if we don't take our roles seriously. All I'm saying is—"

I was interrupted by the loud sounds of various power tools coming somewhere from next door. Whatever it was, they chose a weird time to construct something at eight in the morning, when everyone was preparing for class.

The noises suddenly stop and I continued to where I left off. "All I'm saying that we should start working together as a team. Sure, we are pretty tough on our own, but we would barely count as a team if we just go do our own things without acknowledging one another. Because with our skills combined, we could prevail against anything that comes our way. So that's why we should conduct team-building exercises starting—"

I was again interrupted, only this time by a sound of a loud crash, followed by an angry yell from the ice queen of Team RWBY.

"I told you this wasn't going to work!"

I froze out of bewilderment for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. "We'll have to continue this later, right now as the leader of Team JNPR – my first order is to check out and see if our friends in Team RWBY is alright."

"We're ready when you are," Pyrrha said as Ren and Nora nodded.

They followed me to the dorm, which was a few steps in front of ours. I knocked on Team RWBY's door. "Is everything alright?"

"I-It's nothing! Everything's fine, I have it all under control!" Ruby blatantly lied.

"Good going then." Weiss scoffed.

I guess Ruby has it hard then, sucks to be her right now. Ruby wasn't the lying type, and she sure doesn't look like it. So I bluffed my way inside it, it was sure enough to have someone like her persuaded. "Look, we only wanted to help. If we're bothering you then we'll leave."

"Wait!" Ruby said before she opened the door. She was still wearing her cloak even in uniform. "Y-You can come in."

We went inside the dorm room and was surprised to see that their dorm looked like it was recently hit by a tornado, the beds were crumpled around at the floor with some books scattered all over the place, and even ropes hanging from the ceiling. The girls seem fine, however, aside from looking pretty disappointed with how their dorm room ended up becoming.

"Oh my. What happened here?" Pyrrha questioned with a slightly shocked expression.

"We tried to make bunk beds, that's what," Weiss stated.

"We may have tried to… do so by carrying one bed with ropes and the other with a pile of books." Yang added.

Are these girls seriously kidding me? What else did they think was going to happen? It's not like ropes and books have aura that makes them strong enough to carry beds with or without somebody lying on it.

"So… what could we do to help?" I asked.

"Do we have time though?" Ren responded. "I mean it's 8:55 so..."

"Wait did you just say it's 8:55?!" Weiss suddenly exclaimed.

"Uhh… yes, I did." Ren nodded.

"Classes start at nine, you idiots!" she fumed.

I quickly checked the schedule at my scroll; she's right, five minutes and we'll be late for our first class and we cannot have that.

"Then we'll have to deal with this later! Quick, we have no time to lose!" I said, storming to class with everyone following me.

"Improvised bunk-beds, seriously?!" I said to Ruby while running at the hallway.

"Well, we were almost finished decorating after we unpacked but then we saw that there wasn't room for beds, so I thought it was a great idea to make some bunk beds." she explained.

"You guys just started to unpack?! Didn't you had the whole evening yesterday?!" I asked in disbelief.

"Geez, I don't know!"

After leaving the residence hall, the eight of us went through the courtyard when I spotted Miss Goodwitch and the Great & Powerful Ozpin staring at us. Miss Goodwitch gave a 'you kids better not have caused any trouble' glare while Ozpin just calmly watches with his coffee. I gave a nervous chuckle as we pass through.

* * *

We finally arrived at the classroom and class thankfully has yet to start. Team RWBY sat at the front row while my team took the seats behind them. The classroom contained a golden bust of a man and a blunderbuss/double-bitted axe being displayed above from the board, it even has several Grimm heads being displayed as trophies which is weird because you couldn't keep Grimm corpses as they evaporate after dying.  **[1]**  The whiteboard was already filled with drawings of various Grimm and their descriptions. I noticed Weiss immediately pulled out her notebook and already started writing down notes from the board in advance.

This was the part where I look someone's weapon and be baffled by how it's designed, in this case, the blunderaxe being displayed. Normally, a blunderbuss mixed with an axe sounds reasonable in paper, the problem was he had to place the freaking axehead at the stock instead of somewhere on the barrel which would have been safer to use and could still be held as an axe. Seriously, trying to use that as a rifle could risk your arm getting cut unless you know what the hell you're doing, which you couldn't have been if you came up with that design. If this was the professor's way of showing his guts, then kudos to him. I just hope it doesn't influence his students into unironically thinking that could be a neat weapon to use and inspire them to make something as stupid as that.

A few minutes later a somewhat chubby old man with a huge mustache who resembles the golden bust entered the room. Everyone suddenly started to sit upright as he puts his books on his desk. "Greetings, Huntsmen and Huntresses of tomorrow! I am Professor Peter Port." he introduced himself as he writes down his name at the vacant space on the whiteboard. "I will be your professor for Grimm Studies, where you will learn about the wretched creatures that you will or may face—from the smallest parasite to the most fearsome of titans! Whatever you may call them: Monsters! Demons~, Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Haha!"

He waited for a response, only to for it to be delivered by nothing but chirping crickets. No really, I swear I heard crickets chirp after he said that.

"Uhh~... And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses..." he gave Yang a wink with his brow while clicking his tongue, who responded with a groan.

"Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!"

"Eyy yeah!" Some random moron stood up while raising his fist. Everyone stares at him before he sat down in embarrassment.

"That is what you are training to become." Port continued "But first, A story."

And that's where he lost everyone.

"A tale of a young, handsome man—me! When I was a boy..."

To make a literally long story short, this lasted for almost the entire class—which was two hours, if you may ask.

If there was anything heavier than his weight then it's my eyelids when he was telling his stories, it's that bad that even his own eyes look like they're always shut. You'd expect a class centered on learning the Huntsmen's sworn enemies should be informative and interesting, right? Well, Professor Port somehow manages to make it boring, which was something I didn't know was possible. The only thing keeping me from falling asleep with this dull excuse of a class was watching Snow White getting annoyed by Rose Red's unladylike hijinks, whether it's by showing her a crude drawing of Professor Port (or Professor Poop as she calls him in her drawing. Genius) from her notes while blowing raspberries, balancing a book with a pencil while there's an apple above said book, snoring and the most damnable of all—picking her nose.

"The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" Professor Port finally finished his story after telling it for at least a hundred minutes straight and we still haven't learned anything useful about Grimm or being a Huntsman  **[2]**. "So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Weiss raised her left hand. "I do, sir!"

"Well then, let's find out." Port faces the cage beside him. "Step forward, and face your opponent."

Wait, what the hell? A live Grimm in class?! I know students need to show some demonstrations of their skill but that thing could start attacking the class when its strays from the volunteer, and we're unarmed during these occasions.  **[3]**

"Before you do, of course, you'll have to go change into your combat gear. You will be given five minutes to prepare." Port informed.

Weiss complied and left. She returned shortly with her rapier and her 'combat skirt' and went to the front of the class and faced the cage.

"Go~, Weiss!" Yang cheered, raising her fist.

"Fight well!" Blake waved a small flag that has their team name on it out of nowhere.

"Yeah, represent Team RWBY!" Ruby said.

Weiss annoyed by this, lowered her sword. "Ruby! I'm trying to focus!"

Sheesh, calm down, the beast is still in the cage, show some gratitude that your team, the same people you'll be stuck with for four years—are trying to show some support.

"Oh, sorry." Ruby sheepishly apologized.

Weiss shook her head and returned her attention to the cage.

"Alright, let the match begin!" Port pulls out his ridiculous blunderaxe hybrid and used it to open the cage by smashing the lock. The Grimm charges out and reveals itself as a large boar-like Grimm—a Boarbatusk—or how Rose likes to call them—Bacon.

Weiss sliced the creature then rolled to her left, the Boarbatusk then turned back.

"Haha! Wasn't expecting that, were you?" Port remarked.

"Hang in there, Weiss!" Ruby advised.

"Or how about you  _Yang_  in there." Yang grinned.

For the sake of my sanity and well-being, I'll pretend to have not heard that.

Weiss dashed towards the Boarbatusk, trying to stab its face. Unfortunately, her rapier got stuck in its tusks with Weiss trying to pull it out.

"Bold, new approach. I like it!" Port commented.

"Come on Weiss, show it who's boss!" Ruby cheered.

Weiss turned to her to glare which caused Port's pet pork to swipe her rapier off to the other side of the room.

"Oh ho! Now, what will you do without your weapon?"

Weiss looked up and dodged just right in time before the Boarbatusk was able to ram her. She ran quickly to her rapier then slid to grab it.

"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath!" Ruby instructed.

Hey, that's actually good advice. Now if Weiss thinks she's smart then she should—

"Stop telling me what to do!"

The urge not to put one of my palms to my face then failed me.

Like some sort of hedgehog, the Boarbatusk then rolled into a ball and launches itself towards the ice-queen. Weiss summoned a glyph to block from the attempted strike. The boar was knocked back, exposing its belly. Weiss took the hint and used another glyph to leap to its stomach, stabbing it to death.

"Bravo! Bravo~! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!" Professor Port remarked. Weiss panted before glaring at her team leader.

"I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings—and stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

At least the class ended with something eventful, I was starting to think that this class was scheduled first to compensate for those who lacked sleep.

Weiss angrily turns away before walking out.

"Sheesh, what's with her?" I asked my team who all responded with a shrug.

Now, this is what I was worried about when I talked about team cooperation. While Weiss shown that she could handle herself, she let her arrogance get the best of her. If she just listened to Ruby for a moment, the entire thing would have been shorter. I know Ruby can be obnoxious, but if she's trying to help and is actually acting like a leader, then at least try to hear her out. Thankfully, since my team is composed of friendly faces, (I don't know much about Ren, but he seems fine), so it's easier to make them comply. That still doesn't mean that I didn't need to drill them, they still need to be taught how to properly work together as a team.

**=o=**

  1. _They're actually taxidermy recreations of the Grimm he have slain. This is rather a common practice done by those who hunt Grimm for sport._
  2. _That or Jaune didn't pay attention to the Professor's accounts, which surprisingly provided some useful information regarding Grimm abilities and weaknesses as well as proper Huntsmen comportment that was worth taking notes off._
  3. _Although it's unnoticeable, captured Grimm in Huntsmen academies are implanted with shock restrainers which are triggered in case the creature gets loose._



* * *

As I left the classroom, I took out my scroll and reviewed the schedule to see where to go next:

Freshman Class Schedule (1st Semester) – Monday, Wednesday & Friday:

  * 0900 – 1100 hrs. Grimm Studies (Prof. Port)
  * 1100 – 1230 hrs. History & Social Studies (Dr. Oobleck, Ph.D.)
  * 1230 – 1400 hrs. Recess
  * 1400 – 1530 hrs. Dust Studies (Prof. Peach)
  * 1530 – 1700 hrs. Physical Education & Combat Training (Prof. Goodwitch)



If you're wondering why they had to use the 24-hour clock the military uses, it's because they wanted to remind you that Huntsmen are essentially glorified soldiers, but due to academies' emphasis on individualism and diversity within colors, they didn't want you to feel like one.

Since the school provided me with some books vital for some classes, I went straight to the locker room and grabbed my history textbook and headed to the next class. On my way there, Cardin, the dumb jock haircut guy, knocked my arm off while he was passing through, causing my books to drop.

"Hey!"

"Welcome to Beacon, bunny boy!" he said, laughing to himself while he walks away.

I glared at him for a few seconds before picking up my books and just went to class. He was not worth my time, I'll let him screw around until he gets bored or something.

I went to the classroom and sat next to Ruby. In contrast to the previous class, Team RWBY and JNPR were scattered around the classroom instead of sitting near together.

The classroom looked like the room belonged to a very dedicated investigator or an overanalyzing conspiracy theorist rather than a professor from Sanus' finest academy—with piles of books and paper littered everywhere on the front and some of the papers sticking on the walls while other books are stored in the two shelves, with varying degrees of organization. Instead of a board, we get a huge map of Remnant with some paper attached to it which were being connected to one another by red strings.

"Uhh, Jaune?" Ruby shook my shoulder while we were waiting for the professor to show up.

"Yeah, Ruby?"

"Am I a bad leader?" her question shocked me. Was Weiss really that harsh on her after last class?

"Ruby, it's only your first day as a leader, you still have a lot to prove before you can let people judge you." I said. "If you ask me, I think you're a great leader, you did a great job yesterday on getting rid of that Deathstalker with your team." I actually didn't saw how Ruby and her team got rid of that bug though, since I was too occupied with the Nevermore to even watch her; all I know for sure is that she just did it.  **[1]**

That seemed to cheer her up for a second but she was still doubting herself. "I know but… what if Ozpin really did make a mistake—and I'm really not fit to be the leader of this team."

Oh boy, I guess the pressures of being of leadership is already getting the best of her. To be fair, who says carrying the badge and the burden of a leader was easy?

"Look, Ruby, you're a really nice girl and you came here to protect people from Grimm, right?"

She responded by nodding.

"Then just be yourself and lead by example. I can see a heart of a Huntress in you, you just need to let others see that so they could know what a Huntsman should be. Don't let someone like Weiss discourage you because she couldn't see that yet. Just give yourself a chance."

She pondered these words before she finally stopped frowning and shifted back to her usual cheerfulness. "Well, I guess that made me feel better. Thank you, Jaune. I'll take your word."

"Anytime, Ruby," I said. "You know, I think it would have taken longer for Weiss to kill the Grimm if you didn't point out where its weak-spot was."

She continued to smile at me. It's just a shame that I am mostly doing to this to uphold my 'nice guy' façade and she is taking advice from a self-serving fraud; she deserves much better than that.

Suddenly, a voice came to our attention. "Alright everybody, settle down!" A man with messy green hair wearing a pair of glasses said as he entered the room before sipping from his cup and trotting to the front.

"My name is Bartholomew Oobleck—DOCTOR Oobleck, please remember that." he said before taking another sip. "I will be your professor for History and Social Studies. Now, as Huntsmen and Huntresses you are tasked with safeguarding this planet from the Grimm, but what kind of Huntsmen are you if you know nothing about the world you are fighting for? That is why we are having this class."

He took another sip while looking around the class and turned his head at me. "You there! Stand up and introduce yourself." he ordered.

Wait, why me?! Let me guess, it's because my last name left some of its marks in history.

"Well I… umm…" I stuttered.

"Come on now, don't be shy!" he said.

I hesitantly stood up and introduced myself. "Well… my name is Jaune Arc… The leader of Team JNPR" I said, turning my head to my teammates as they waved.

"Thank you, Mr. Arc, please be seated." he said as I complied. "Now, does that last name remind you of something?"

Of course, Weiss was the one that rose her hand and stood up. "Harry Arc, also known as 'The Flash', a renowned war hero of Vale during the Great War, who was responsible for many of Vale's victories during the conflict."

"Superb! It seems that someone's been learning their history." Doctor Oobleck remarked as Weiss sits down. "That is one of the many stories told in history, it shows you how rich the world of Remnant is. You see, Jaune here is the great-great-grandson of Harry Arc." he said as I try not to cover my face out of embarrassment. "It doesn't end with just him, Harry Arc's son and the son after him, also contributed something as well."

Thankfully, he stopped right there and did not bring up my Dad or me and my fiasco at Podunk. "But enough about the Arcs! Their stories are for another day! Our first lesson will be the rise of the Empire that was. I'm sure you have all learned this countless times before, but students tend to forget it after the end of the year and history is more important than it looks!" he said before clearing his throat. "Before there were the four kingdoms, there was once an empire that united Remnant… or most of it at least."

He went on and taught about the birth of the Remnant Empire and their contributions to early civilization while it spreads its culture around Remnant by slowly conquering its neighbors, at least that's what I got, because I got lost at the middle of the lecture because he was talking too fast while zooming around the classroom like a madman that I got tired of catching up. I spent most of the class skimming at random pages in my history book for anything interesting.

"…by this age, the empire now controls one-third of Remnant." he then took a deep breath and paused before the school bell rang. "That's all for today, tomorrow we will discuss the Empire's finest hour to their eventual fall. Please study pages 16 to 23. You are dismissed."

With that, we stood up and left the class for lunch. All these lectures were making us hungry and we were given an hour and a half to eat and unwind, which is something I needed because I felt a little agitated after that, he just had to bring up my family to provide an example of one of Remnant's historical figures, don't get me wrong, my ancestors are cool and all but they just remind me of greatness and bravery that I cannot emulate myself, at least legitimately. It doesn't help that the professor seemed to recognize who I was and probably expects me to be as significant as them.  **[2]** This, added with my reputation, makes this class somewhat troublesome.

**=o=**

  1. _Ruby had me freeze the Deathstalker while Blake distracted it. She then sliced off the gland before Yang punched it off the bridge._
  2. _Like most people, Jaune was not aware that his ancestors had to suffer the same dilemma he had to go through._



* * *

We were sitting down taking lunch. Of course we were next to Team RWBY, who where growing to become our unofficial sister team ever since the initiation; it made me a bit concerned for them. Ruby and Weiss were just ignoring each other while Yang is chattering about something in which Blake just responds by nodding disinterestedly. As much as I want to help, this was Ruby's responsibility, she's barely going to learn anything herself if I solve her team's discords for her. Besides, I have my own to team to worry about, which reminded me of the little training initiative I was planning earlier.

"Hey, Jaune. Is there anything bothering you?" Pyrrha asked, noticing my concerned expression.

"Oh, nothing in particular," I lied. "It's just that I was thinking about the team-building exercises we were planning."

Nora was trying to say something with her mouth full, which was just as comprehensible as one would expect, it wasn't clear until she swallowed her food. "What's on your mind then, Fearless Leader?"

I would have told them then but this was private business with my team and I didn't want an outside party to potentially ruin it for me, like that one stupid cardinal throwing small beans at me, trying to get my attention. "We'll discuss it later at the dorm, right now, eat up, you're going to need it."

"Okie-Dokie!" Nora went back into munching her sandwich.

After we were done eating, we gathered to the dorm and went on to plan for 'Operation: Golden Horse Training'. The three of them all lined up at the middle as they listened to me while I walk back and forth.

"Alright gang, ever since we found ourselves to be mutual holders of the white knight chess piece, I knew that if we want Grimm to fear us, we must put some practice on our dynamics as a team," I said. "So, the first thing we need is—" I stopped walking around when I saw Nora standing up straight while wearing a green army helmet "Uh, what are you wearing?" I asked, losing my confident tone of authority.

"Standard issue protective headgear. Sir!"

I gave a puzzled look. I know what that is, obviously. What I meant was 'where did that come from?' I then turned at Ren for a candid answer.

"Oh, she likes to play dress-up sometimes, she brought a few costumes with her when we got here."

I raised my brow at this. "She does cosplay?" I curiously inquired.

"I prefer not to answer." he said, his eyes noticeably widened for a bit.

I cringed slightly for a second before turning to Nora. I gotta keep an eye on her, the last thing I want is to know is that weird stuff happens in this room while I'm gone.  **[1]**  "Alright, at ease, soldier. You're just as fine yourself—no need for you to wear that." I said, sort of playing along.

"Sir, thank you, sir!" Nora said as she discarded her helmet and went back to her usual demeanor. "…I mean, of course, dear leader! Anything you say!" she said with a salute.

"Now, where was I?" I resumed. "Ah, of course, the first thing we need is a place where we could practice in peace. We could only do so much in this room, and that's only assuming we somehow don't trash it. So, does anyone know where we can train?"

The room was silent for seconds, indicating that they have no answer. Well, we've only been here for three days and even if we spent most of our time here exploring the academy, we were still not sure of an available space to train. "Nothing, then? Alright then, don't worry, we just need to scout a place, starting right now. Make sure it has enough space for us to train, and be sure it a place where no one can disturb us, and remember: this is private JNPR business, tell no one about this, not even Team RWBY unless I say so. Understood?"

They all nodded. "Good. Meeting adjourned." We all went to our separate ways to spend our own time for remaining minutes of recess.

**=o=**

  1. _Jaune may rest knowing that there was nothing suggestive on Nora's wardrobe, and she mostly wear them out of sheer playfulness. That's what Ren told me at least._



* * *

When the bell rang, I immediately went to the Dust Lab to take Professor Peach's class. Since I seldom use dust, this was going to be the toughest subject in my opinion, at least when it comes to not watching the clock. I predict it be to something like science class, only that it's focused on colorful magic rocks.

"Students," A woman in her early to mid-thirties called. She had orange hair, was wearing some safety goggles and a lab gown "Welcome to Dust Studies. I am Professor Bonnie Peach, I will the one guiding you into learning about these useful tools and teach you how to use them. All of you had at least used dust at one point in your lives, so even if you don't consider yourself as a 'dust user', this subject will still be vital to you as a Huntsman, especially if you plan to compete in the tournament, where you are likely to face a dust user and want to know how to counter them." she then went to the chalkboard and started writing down 'Dust 101' "Now to start, please turn your textbooks to the introduction page."

She looked at the class and then noticed something when she adjusted her goggles. "My-my. Do my eyes deceive me? Are you Weiss Schnee? The heiress of the Schnee Dust Company?"

"Yes, I am, professor," Weiss responded.

"Oh. It's just I'm a huge fan of your singing. I'm also a staunch supporter of your father's company." Professor Peach said.

She sings? I hope she doesn't shatter glasses or make birds explode when doing so.  **[1]**

"Why, thank you, ma'am."

"If you don't mind, would you like to read the introduction here in the front?" Professor Peach asked.

"It would be an honor."

An heiress of a dust company whose fighting style seemed to involve heavy use of dust will likely to excel a subject based around dust? How shocking.

Other comments made about her were much less friendly than mine, to say the least.

"Ugh, her again? I really cannot stand this skank."

"Yeah. When will she just fuzz off?"

"Never liked the Schnees. Damn rich bigots."

I cannot help but feel sorry for Weiss. Yeah, she has a crappy attitude that I could spend two whole pages writing about. But being an heir of a multi-million lien company has its downsides, which must be a huge pain to deal with.

This day's lesson was about the basics and origins of dust, something I already knew after studying it multiple times with Bleu. When it was over, we went to our lockers to get our weapons for Phys-Ed/Combat Class taught by Miss Goodwitch herself. I have mixed feelings about combat class, while I do appreciate its practicality, I fear that I might end up getting picked for a match which I either have to make my worsen my undeserved reputation by winning, or disappoint my team and friends and expose myself as a sham by losing. The best case scenario is to get lucky enough not to get picked, but I don't know if I could count on my luck on one of these days.

The combat hall was already filled with almost every other freshmen teams in school. I sat beside my team and waited for Miss Goodwitch.

Miss Goodwitch entered a few minutes later, she then stood at the middle of the arena, causing the chatter to fade with all eyes on her without uttering a single word. She looked around the classroom for a moment before she began to speak.

"Good afternoon, students, how was your first day of class treating you all? I hope you've found yourselves comfortable in your teams and classes. Now, let us begin the class you have all been waiting for."

Or have been worrying about.

"As some of you may have guessed, this is the most important class in this school, as it trains your physique, skills and tactical knowledge as you demonstrate them. As Huntsmen and Huntresses, you must always be prepared to engage in combat anytime, anywhere." she then pulled out a copy of the student's Beacon handbook. "Please refer to your handbooks for the guidelines written for the course."

We were given a few minutes to read the contents regarding combat training in our handbooks before we were asked to stop and return our attention to Miss Goodwitch.

"In preparation, you will be given thirty minutes of warm-up exercises. We will need to make sure that your bodies are prepared to partake in combat training. To begin, I want you all to start by standing up and forming a line outside. You will run thirty laps around the courtyard."

And so it begins.

**=o=**

  1. _I take offense to that._



* * *

_Editorial Note:_

_Since Jaune did not bother writing down the rules of engagement during combat matches in his accounts, I took the liberty to add them here as an excerpt. It should satisfy the curiosity of readers who wish to know more about the procedures of class duels among Beacon students._

"Rules of Training Matches" from the Student's Beacon Handbook

_[This version was the one used in Jaune's first year at Beacon. The current version being used today is more or less the same, with slight differences.]_

 

Matches will consist of two teams. Teams may consist of a single or multiple members. Usually, both teams must have a balance of quantity but if one member is proven to be too adept enough, then they are to be matched with more than one opponent that could range to an entire team, with only limited assistance or none-at-all, depending on the participant's skill level or the handicap needed to maintain the balance of power between the participants.

Duration of the matches ranges from three-to-ten minutes. When the timer runs out, the team that holds the most aura combined wins.  **[1]**  Another method of winning is to deplete all of the opponents' aura to red (15% and below). Participants who wish to forfeit may do so by simply declaring oneself as forfeit.

Be reminded that your performance in matches are graded.

Here are a few guidelines and regulations to follow during a match:

1\. If a participant's aura is in the red, that participant must now exit the arena, their opponent must cease attacking defeated participants to avoid serious injury.

2\. All participants must stay at the ring during the match, failure to do so will have the participant lose by ring-out.

3\. Cheating of any kind is not permitted.

4\. The participant's team may cheer for their team-mate(s) but are not allowed to interfere as with the rest of the audience.

5\. Explosives of any kind are not allowed as it may damage the premisses and possibly injure spectators. Non-Lethal explosives are allowed but must have proper verification by the professor before being taken to the arena.

6\. Do not attempt to attack the spectators.

7\. 'Dirty tricks' are not allowed, such as spitting and biting on your opponent. As such, refrain from touching an opponent's sensitive body parts, a violation will count as sexual harassment. While dirty fighting is not prohibited and even encouraged against the Grimm, they have no place on an honourable duel.

8\. Try to cause as minimum damage to the room as possible, even if the arena was built to be durable.

9\. Kindly follow all the commands issued by the professor, no exceptions.

10\. No lollygagging.  **[2]**

**=o=**

  1. _During team battles, teams have a separate aura indicator that measures all of the team member's aura into one. This was mentioned in an earlier section on the guidebook._
  2. _More specifically: Do not stall, thereby, making a mockery of the match. This was made more clear in later editions._



* * *

The warm-up exercises were tiring (especially for Ren) but I managed to get through them since Dad had to put me on the same thing. I had to go through push-ups, sit-ups, and some stretching. At least I didn't have to punch tree trunks hundreds of times; I still remember getting splinters from those things, somehow bypassing my aura.  **[1]**

We were given time to rest before being sent back to the combat hall where the real action begins.

"Before we start selecting participants for the matches, will all of you to kindly pull out your scrolls?" Miss Goodwitch commanded. "You may notice an app that says 'Team Data', tap on it."

I proceeded to do just that. My screen then started to display portraits of me and my teammates as they show our full aura gauges.

"As you see, you are now looking at you and your teammate's aura levels. You will be using this during combat situations starting today, I advise you to regularly refer to it during such circumstances."

So far, this was the most beneficial thing the school has given me. I always needed to keep track of my aura to make sure I'm not toast. I don't know how it got the scroll to read its user's aura levels though,  **[2]** but as long as it works, I really don't care how.

"Now that you all know how to keep track of your aura, let us finally begin the matches."

"Alright!" Nora cheered with other students who were excited to see some action.

"First off, I would like to introduce to you to Umi Hisakawa," Miss Goodwitch gestured to a girl in a geisha attire, wearing a light-blue kimono. "She's a senior here in Beacon. She was selected to be your opponent for this day before you will be able to face one another. She will demonstrate some pointers to consider during battle." Miss Goodwitch continued as Umi pulls out a fan and cools herself. "Would anyone like to volunteer?"

Several eager students raised their hands. "Very well." Miss Goodwitch said. "Brook Lane of Team BFYR (Bonfire), please come to the stage at once."

"Oh, hell yeah!" Brook said.

Once at the stage, Brook pulls out his spiked baseball bat and began facing his opponent.

"This will be a one-on-one battle. You will be given three minutes to strike your opponent down until they are unable to fight. If the timer runs out and none of you has still fallen, whoever has the most aura wins." Miss Goodwitch stated. "You have read your handbook, have you, Mr. Lane?"

"I have, Miss Goodwitch."

"Then I'm assuming you know the rules of engagement then?" she further questioned.

"Yes, ma'am"

"Good, then let us begin."

She then leaves the stage before all the lights—save for the one on the arena turned off. Two screens appeared on the front of the hall, each showing one of the combatant's gauges, both of which are full..

"Hey, just so you know: I'm not gonna hit your pretty face, so don't worry." Brook flirted as he readied his bat.

"That's a shame, I was hoping you'd be more of a challenge," Umi replied while still fanning herself.

"Eh?"

"Begin!" Miss Goodwitch declared.

Brook held his bat with both of his hands as he started to charge at his opponent. Umi then fanned herself for a couple more times before revealing blades coming out of her fans. Surprised, Brook stopped when Umi started to throw the blades at him which he barely dodged and deflected due to the weight of his weapon. Umi then pulled out another bladed fan and proceeded to dash into Brook while spinning. Brook deflected her strikes but had trouble trying to counter her attacks due to her speed.

Brook was then pushed to the ground, looking at his aura to see at that's it's already at 71%. He then angrily jumps back and changed his bat to an assault rifle and fired at the senior. Umi used her fans to shield from the bullets while walking towards him. When his clip ran out, Umi stormed towards him as Brook quickly tried to change back to a bat while anticipating her next attack, only for Umi to swipe away his weapon up into the air before pulling a roundhouse kick in his face, knocking him again to the ground. Brook went back up as swiftly as he could before he caught his bat while it was falling (and conveniently did not caught it on the spiked part.) He swung it towards her face which she blocked with both of her fans, Brook head-butted her knocking her back slightly, he then swung his bat when Umi dodged right in time and used both of her bladed fans to slice his back multiple times. Staggered, Brook continued to swing his bat before turning around and saw his face getting swiped by a fan and fell down on his back.

Umi turned to the audience to give a bow as the buzzer and lights came back on.

Yikes. I don't think I'll ever see pretty Mistrali girls in kimonos the same way ever again.

"Students, as you can see, Mr. Lane's aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Brook is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match." Miss Goodwitch said as she steps back to the stage. "After witnessing that match, you should have now learned that you should not underestimate your opponents and that one's appearance can be deceiving."

"Hmph." Umi harrumphed as puts one of her fans back to her sash and fanned herself again with the other. Brook made an embarrassed chuckle while he was still on the ground.

"Mr. Lane, you may now return to your seat." Miss Goodwitch looks at him before he nodded then pushed himself up and walked out of the arena while audibly grunting. "That was only the introduction to combat matches, while you have all proven yourselves to be worthy of Beacon's attendance, remember than you are still Huntsmen-in-training and have much to learn. Since we still have an hour before dismissal and Miss Hisakawa still has 96% of her aura left. Who else would like to volunteer?"

After the last match, the class became much more hesitant when volunteering that no one raised their hand, and instead just looked at each other.

"Became wary after the last match, have you?" Miss Goodwitch commented. "Good, then you are all learning not to be reckless. Worry not, you are not going to face against Miss Hisakawa in a duel, instead, you will be training with her while she demonstrates some pointers for combat. Matches will resume next month. For now, you will need to hone your skills first." she told us. "Now, would Luna Mona of Team VILE (Violet) kindly enter the arena?"

The rest of the class had us learning about combat moves and tips. I mostly paid attention to the other students' fighting styles, in case I happen face to them, I would have a strategy.

Eventually, the bell rang, marking the end of our first day at class.

"Remember everything you've learned today, your future careers as Huntsmen will depend on it. I will see you all tomorrow." Miss Goodwitch said before everyone left the combat hall.

**=o=**

  1. _Probably because Jaune lost focus sometime during the exercise, thus, deactivating his aura._
  2. _The application works when the scroll is in contact with the user's aura. This works even if the scroll is in the user's clothing such as pockets and even bags, as long as they are connected to the body._



* * *

The team and I spent the rest of the day looking for a vacant spot for team training. We've checked to see if students are permitted to use the combat hall to train after hours. Unfortunately, they're closed after classes and are only open during weekends in the afternoon, where it will be very likely to be occupied by the other students. We soon split up and went on doing our own things while still trying to look a place. When we gathered to our dorm room later, Ren and Nora told me that the good spots were taken by the other students, while Pyrrha said she was still working at it. I sighed and told them to resume this tomorrow and get some long-needed rest.

It was around ten o'clock, or 2200 hours if you follow the military time. I was sitting on my bed, updating this journal and reviewing the notes I have written during combat class and others based on observations of my teammates during their performance yesterday when Nora called me.

"Jaune?" she asked tapping my shoulder. She was wearing her pajamas which consisted of a black t-shirt that has a print that says 'boop' with her logo making up the second 'o' and a pink short patterned with white thunderbolts, which suited her, I guess.

"Yes, Nora, what is it?" I asked.

"Can you get me a glass of water? I know you might be busy but the fridge is empty; I would have told Ren or Pyrrha but they're both asleep and I don't want to bother them."

I'd ask if she could have done it herself, but I guess there wasn't any harm in doing it. As the team leader, it was my duty to look after my team. I felt like taking a quick stroll at Beacon during the night anyway.

"Okay, sit tight, I'll get you something to drink," I said.

"Aww~ Thank you, you're the best!" she said loudly while trying not to wake up the others before giving a quick hug.

I patted her back before letting go, she went back to her bed while I hid my journal and notes. I left the dorm with an empty glass cup on my left hand. I slowly and quietly closed my dorm room before walking to where I recall the nearest water dispenser was located.

As I was about to pass Team RWBY's dorm, the door suddenly opened causing me to stop out of instinct. Weiss walked out of the room and then stopped to say something.

"Hey, Ruby… I always wanted bunk beds as a kid," she spoke in an amiable tone, which was something I wasn't used to hearing. I was happy for them though. Thank goodness to whatever that made them get along.  **[1]**  I was worried I had to deal with Red Vs. White drama in a neighboring team for so long.

She closed the door and saw me on the hallway, thankfully, it wasn't that awkward, I was wearing the new PJs I bought yesterday, which was simply just a black T-shirt and blue sweatpants, so she didn't have to suffer into seeing me in those onesies unlike Yang the other day. I kept the bunny slippers though, which she didn't seem to notice or mind if she did. She was still wearing her usual outfit, which led me to assume that she was on her way to the locker room to clean up and change.

It was rather rude to just pass her without saying something, sure her first impressions weren't good, but being uncivil would only infuriate her and I couldn't bear with an ice queen this late at night. She seemed to be in a good mood, so I thought it was appropriate to be courteous.

"Hey." I greeted.

"Hey." she replied as she fixed her bangs with one of her hands while hesitantly making eye-contact.

"So… how are the beds?" I asked.

"We got real bunk beds now. I wouldn't say Miss Goodwitch was happy when she saw our room in shambles though." she answered.

I slightly chuckled at that remark. "At least you got what you guys wanted. Anyway, I… uh, gotta go. The Valkyrie needs her water." I stuttered, showing her the empty glass as I passed through her before I could make this encounter awkward.

"Jaune?" she called.

"Yeah?" I stopped at my tracks and turned back at her.

"When Pyrrha said you'd make a great teammate… I hope she's right. You seemed to be a lot more capable than you look. Don't take this the wrong way, but if it wasn't for the revelation of your skills, I would have thought of you as some unqualified idiot who somehow cheated his way into Beacon." she admitted.

Cheating into Beacon? What kind of warped alternate version of myself would go as far as to commit such an act? Not being accepted into Beacon would have been the most relieving thing that would've ever happen to me.

"I just hope you continue on whatever you're doing that keeps your team afloat." she continued. "…and I mean it. Look, I'm sorry on how I acted earlier and I know our initial meetings weren't exactly ideal, I let my temper get the better of me. Now, everyone must've thinks I'm sort of a snob."

Yeah, I can see where she was coming from. Stress can make a person look unlikable. "Must be rough being an heiress, huh?"

"Exactly. People wanted to live like royalty, but they do not know the everyday stresses and burdens as one. My father, for instance, is a good man but I could barely go a single day without hearing him yell because of what he had to go through daily. It doesn't help that people always seem to remember the bad things we did, but always forget when we do good."

I can't help but agree with her. I've seen a few individuals being portrayed based on one of their actions, and people think they've become experts of that person when in reality, there was more to it than that.

She then took a deep breath and looked back at me. "I think I'm getting carried away. All, I'm saying is… thank you for understanding. I guess Pyrrha was lucky to have you all, huh?"

Maybe. I subtly looked down at that. I don't know if getting paired with and being led by someone like me was beneficial for her.

"It was my pleasure… Snow Angel." I slipped out a nickname out of habit. I realized this then smacked myself for forgetting that I wasn't supposed to act as my private self, as I still have to uphold my nice guy façade.

"Jaune, people call me a lot of names but that's probably the worst one yet." she remarked with slight irritation.

"Sorry. I didn't know what came out on my mind." I sheepishly apologized.

"But still, thank you. I really needed to get that off my chest."

"You're welcome." I nodded.

We smiled at each other before going our separate ways. It was actually nice to have a chat with Weiss while she's not acting like some anger-management attendee. But I should remember that this was only one time and she was in a better mood, as far as I know, her heart is still far from melted.

**=o=**

  1. _After Grimm Studies, I was given a talk by Professor Port. He convinced me to savor what I had and continue on what I do best as a huntress instead of complaining about not being chosen as a leader. Say what you wish about Professor Port and his tall tales but he knows exactly what he is talking about, and I highly respect him for that._



* * *

It's now Thursday, apart from the class schedule being somewhat different and that professors were now giving us homework—much to our chagrin, it was just more of the same day. Yes, that meant Professor Port spent the majority of his class telling his stories again and it was just as entertaining as one may guess.

It was recess and I was done taking lunch. I went to the library to study some notes while working on my team's strategy and tactics. Since I study better with fewer people in the room, I headed to the private section of the library where only a few go to. I found that place by simply wandering around, I bet that most students don't know it even existed.

As I entered the private section, I almost dropped my notes when I saw Blake, who was just as startled as me that she stood up and stopped whatever she was reading and quickly and almost instantly covered it with her other books. I didn't know what to expect.

"Ahh!" We screamed simultaneously.

"Blake?!"

"Jaune?! Wha-What are you doing here?" she asked, holding her books tight on her chest.

"I-I didn't know you were here! They say this place was always empty!"

"Could you two lovebirds keep it down?! This is a library." An annoyed student called from the main section.

"Sorry!" I said while lowering my voice. Also, lovebirds? I know her the least from Team RWBY, judging by her demeanor, she seemed to be aloof, preferring the company of her books than people. I looked back towards Blake who was flushed and still was clenching her books. "Look, I'm very sorry, If I'm bothering you then I'll just go."

I turned back and was about to leave. "Wait!" Blake called. "It's okay. I'd be selfish if I keep this place for myself."

"Oh—umm… Thank you." I said as I slowly walked back inside.

"On one condition," Blake said, gesturing with her index finger. "You stay on that half, I'll stay on this; that way, we couldn't bother each other, got it?"

"That seems fair." I really couldn't find a reason to say why not, Blake wasn't the type to bother which was why I didn't need to worry about her.

We spent our remaining free-time reading our own things, not minding one another, but I was having a hard time concentrating for some reason, I didn't know why. When I thought about it, my conscience directed me toward Blake, not herself, but oddly enough—her bow. I don't know why I'm having suspicions over a girl's accessory. Sure, it looks too huge that it made her look like she had cat ears, but aside from that, there was really nothing to it. It was just a bow.

I was starting to get irritated at my own mind being paranoid over a piece of headwear, so in attempts to get it off, I bought it up.

"Hey, Blake. I just wanted to say—uh, you have a really cute bow."

Well, that's a start. I pretty much grew up to be confident around people of the opposite sex, other boys to either lack confidence or be too confident, thus talking to girls outside my own mother doesn't feel alien to me; living with seven sisters and dating a few girls back at Pucelle probably helped.

"Thanks? I guess." she confusedly looked back to me before looking down and adding. "You know, this might sound a little weird but—it's a part of me. I don't think I could show myself without it."

She sounded a little too passionate over a huge bow but I guess that's Blake for you.

"Hey, it looks good on you, but I think you'll look just fine without it. Beauty comes from its natural form." I pointed out, and yes, I know how corny it sounded but it helps enforce my public persona.

"You don't know that, trust me," she responded somewhat bluntly.

"Maybe not but you won't know own beauty if you keep hiding it from yourself."

She gasped at me with her eyes widening. I looked at her confused, there wasn't anything I said that was remotely offensive, and I made sure I was careful enough not to.

"I'm sorry, was it something I said?"

"No—it's nothing, just please stop talking about it."

"Look, Blake, if I offended you then I—"

"Don't. Look, I know you mean no harm and have no reason to apologize—I just… I…I don't want to talk about it."

"If that's what you wish." I went back to studying my notes. If she's not comfortable talking about this then why bother, though she could at least tell me what was wrong.

Blake sighed. "You know, I think you really are a good person." she cheered up and smiled at me.

Sadly, I don't think I could agree with her on that. It was only smart to make sure you're on everyone's good side.

"I just need to think about what you said," she said before looking back at her book.

We went back to minding our own business until the bell rang and we went back to class. I finally got to talk to Blake for once, though I don't know what that was all about—then again, this was Blake, I didn't know much about her compared to her teammates; she was like the only person on this circle that I never properly met on the first day. I'll learn more about her soon enough. Right now, I have more important things to take care of.

* * *

Classes for today were finally over. Spending seven hours of lectures after years of being home-schooled in the comfort of a familiar environment takes some getting used to.

I left the classroom when I heard Pyrrha call me, I turned around to listen to what she has to say.

"Hey, Pyrrha. What's new?" I asked.

"Jaune, I think I may have found a place for us to train." she said.

Finally some great news, I thought. "Really?! Great! Let's notify Ren and Nora."

"You summon us, brave leader?" Nora instantly popped out of nowhere, startling both of us, with Ren catching up, panting.

"What's seems to be the issue?" Ren asked while leaning at the nearest wall.

"Good news, Pyrrha found a spot, we can begin training right now."

"Really?! Oh, finally! We are going to have so much fun training with each other!" Nora ecstatically said.

"Right, right," I nodded before turning back to my partner. "Pyrrha, would you lead the way?"

"Of course. Follow me."

We followed her as she took us to what would be Team JNPR's training spot. She took us to a series of stairs which then led us to a rooftop. It was an empty space save for some black pipes placed around and a pair of air-conditioner units standing near the walls between the entrance. While it was spacious enough, the parapets were too short that they're barely a foot tall, which could risk any of us falling if we're not careful, so we had to limit acrobatics during training just to be safe. Better than nothing at least.

"So what do you think?" Pyrrha asked.

"It's good enough, the problem is that we could fall given how short the walls are, but aside from that, this will do just fine, we just have to be careful especially with acrobatic stunts," I told them.

"Sounds reasonable," Pyrrha said.

"So, where do we start?" Nora bounced, stretching her fingers.

I took a deep breath and thought for a few seconds before beginning the session. "Alright, so we are here not only to practice our skills but to make sure we could work as a team."

"And don't forget: We're also here so we could help you unlock your semblance!" Nora added.

I almost forgotten about that, had she not reminded me about it, which I wish she didn't since I didn't want everyone worrying about my semblance. "Oh right, that too. But first, we have to establish your combat roles so we can begin." I said.

I first turned to Ren. "Ren, since you're the most mobile of all of us, you'll be the recon of this team. Since You have limited amounts of stamina, do your best to make each one of them count."

"Got it." he nodded.

"Nora, you're weapons pack a lot of punch, so you'll be in charge of demolition and be our heavy damager. You'll have to follow my instructions to make the most of it."

"Understood!" she bounced into a straight statute then saluted.

"Pyrrha, since you're the most skilled here and have the most flexible combat style, you'll be in charge of the front-lines and the main offensive." And be my bodyguard on the battlefield.

"What about you?" Pyrrha asked.

"I'll mainly be support as I issue orders, but I'll help if I can." Which by that, I mean if an enemy has gotten too close and I have no other choice. I'll mostly stay at the sidelines, providing supporting fire—if I had a gun, which I would have bought if I didn't blow my money on clothes, so I had to save some money until I could buy one or maybe find one lying around.

"So, any questions?" I clapped my hands and looked at my team who all responded with silence. "Now that's settled, let's move on to some of my personal advice during combat." I cleared my throat. "First off: Don't fight fair."

"Isn't that against the rules?" Pyrrha inquired.

"Good question, I'm talking about fighting Grimm. Of course, during friendly duels with fellow Huntsmen, we have to fight honorably and abide the rules," Though, if you ask me, I'd say that unless your opponent is a friend, don't give them the chance to win while making sure you're not violating the rules. I'm sure that the opponent has the same idea. "But the Grimm lacks the concept of honor, rules, and cannot be reasoned with, they want you dead as soon as they feel you, so do everything you can to get rid of them."

They seem to get the point.

"Next is during combat matches and other forms of competition: When on the offensive, we need to find a way to signal each other without giving away our attacks. Calling our attacks would only give the enemy a chance to react especially if they're familiar with us. So, are there any suggestions on how we could call each other?"

Nora then raised her hands. "Oh! Oh! We could use animal sounds as codes!"

"I'm sorry, what?" her answer was odd that I have to ask if I heard right.

"As silly as it may sound, I'll have to second her on that," Ren chimed in. "It leaves the enemy confused at the noise while it signals your allies. It's also how we ended up as partners, believe it or not."

"Interesting. Mind giving an example?"

"Here is the sound of the sloth! It helped me and Ren get together as partners." Nora said before demonstrating the sound. "Qrr-aa! Qrr-aa! Qrr-aa!"

I raised my brow at the strange noises my teammate just made. I was convinced to accept it since Ren was correct about it being confusing while being audible to our teammates. "Okay, that could work."

"I still doubt that sloths sound like that," Ren commented.

"And last but not the least: Don't be afraid to run away from battles you know you can't win. When people hear this, they might call you a coward, but there is a difference between cowardice and caution. As Huntsmen, we needed to be in best fighting shape as possible, we can't waste ourselves on hopeless battles when we still have a lot of lives to save." I told them. I needed my team to follow my example of not disregarding your own life. Just because this team is full of skilled fighters, it didn't mean the odds were always with us. After all, we're still Huntsmen-in-training. "Got it?"

They mused for a moment until Ren stepped in. "I concur."

"Wise words, dear leader!" Nora followed.

Pyrrha nodded. "You're doing well, Jaune. Keep it up."

I smiled. I'm happy to know that my teammates trust me so far. But at the same time, I can't help but feel ashamed of persuading them to a strategy that I actually made for my team to emphasize my own safety. The only way to repay them is to make sure they don't get themselves killed while carrying it out.

"I'm glad you could understand. Now, onto exercise!"

We spent almost two exercising and practicing. It was actually a nice experience. Being able to train with your teammates while getting to know them a little better.

After we were finished, Pyrrha and I stood at the center end of the rooftop, admiring the view together. Ren was exhausted, sitting at one of the AC units, and Nora was bouncing around, still full of energy as she usually was.

"Gee, that was fun! I'm very glad to be in the most awesome team in Beacon! Oum be praised!" she raised both of her hands up.

We both confusedly looked at Nora. "I'm sorry, but who's Oum?" I looked at Pyrrha who answered with a shrug before looking back at Nora.

"I… actually don't know. Really, it just suddenly came to my mind. It's weird! It's not like I took any coffee lately, Ren never let me have any coffee." Nora answered, I'd say she's lying but she sounded as genuinely confused as us.

"Well, whoever he is, he sounds like a cool guy." Ren of all people remarked, still sitting down.

We all then put our muddled stares at him, that wasn't something you'd normally hear from him.

"What?" he responded.

Pyrrha and I looked at each other and laughed the whole thing off. We put our gazes at Beacon's scenery during sunset. She suddenly held my shoulder, I turned to look at her emerald eyes and saw the sunset shine on her. I struggled not to blush at the stunning image.

"We won't let you down," she said.

They definitely won't because I have faith in them, something that I could not say the same for myself.

"I know."

I looked back at the sky as the four of us watch it transition from day to night.

A beautiful undefeated champion, a ying of joy and energy, and a yang of logic and tranquility; all being led by a pathetic, lying blond who was unfortunate enough to be stuck here. This is going to be one weird story to tell.

* * *

 


	4. Pathological Jaundice

_Editorial Note:_

_Due to the lack of relevant events following the last entry, we will be skipping ahead to one month after the last archived chapter—which unfolds a much more notable story._

_Skipping will be a regular occurrence between some chapters as I cannot include every single journal entry on the archive since many of them provide little-to-no contribution to the overall chronicle that drove Jaune to prominence. However, some of the more interesting rejected entries would still be included in an 'extras' section, which should be released soon._

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Pathological Jaundice**

* * *

 

> _"Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo"_
> 
> **_-A line from an old Imperial Poem_ **

 

It's kinda hard to believe that I actually managed to survive Beacon for a month. I have to admit, I was too pessimistic to think that I wouldn't last a week. Sure, I still need to be wary, but it's nice to know that I could get used to this. My team has been very cooperative; our training sessions have been so far successful, with my teammates complying with the roles they been given with, and have followed my orders without a question, which made the preservation of my own life a lesser concern, making me focus my worries on my other problem—academics.

Despite being a passable leader and strategist, I was never big on theoretical education. I graduated with average scores when I was on elementary, which was good enough since I wasn't the type to brag about stupid letters on a card. I mostly passed since I convinced my sisters, particularly Bleu, to do my homework, and teachers would overlook the fact that an underachiever somehow has some perfect scores on his homework. When I started being homeschooled, I would usually pass by derailing classes, taking advantage of loopholes, and testing my sisters' patience by making them want to get the lecture over with, so I could go back and peacefully spend my time on whatever I please. Here, I can't simply bullcrap my way into passing without getting into trouble, so I have to take my schoolwork seriously.

I spent most of the last night writing a 2000 word essay on what I've learned about Dust Studies the past month which was due today, added with the fact that it has been my weakest subject compared to others, so I had to cram the textbook while writing it down. As a result, I didn't get a lot of sleep, I spent the entirety of Professor Port's class making up for the lack of sleep. Since it was typically his story time I doubt that I missed anything really noteworthy. I continued to sleep at ~~Professor~~ Doctor Oobleck's class. Initially, I tried to stay awake but I guess two hours sleeping at Port's class wasn't enough so I ended up going back to dreamland for another while.

I was eventually awoken by a paper football crashing at the back of my head.

"Hey!" I cried out, shaking my head from the sensation.

Doctor Oobleck suddenly zooms in front my desk. "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"

Since I wasn't able to pay attention at that moment, I had to ask about the question if I were to answer. "Uh, what was the question again, sir?" I asked, followed by some students snickering, which I frankly couldn't care less, given how students here are always bored that they'd pretty much laugh at anything.

"Have you not been paying attention again, Mr. Arc? Very well, since you kindly asked: What advantage did the faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Oh brother, I recall having this lesson sometime back in elementary and homeschool but tend to forget these as I wanted my mind to have room with things I want to remember. Well, here goes nothing. "Uhh… the answer… the advantage… that the faunus…" I looked at Pyrrha behind the doctor's back for some help. "…had over General... whatever's stuff."

"General Lagune!" he corrected.

"Right, right. General Lagune… is that…" I looked again at Pyrrha, who was cupping her hands around her eyes, making her look like she was making some binoculars with her own hands. I could not make up what she was gesturing to, so I answered with the best of what I could come up.

"Is that they have really big eyes!"

Laughter ensued accompanied with Pyrrha and Blake face-palming. Wonderful, I can see the headlines for the next issue of the school paper: 'Supposed slayer of a bandit lord loses to a history question!'

The doctor sipped his coffee and zooms back to his desk. "So close, yet so far, Mr. Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier," Cardin said, insufferably leaning back in his chair. Judging by that statement, Cardin probably never owned a pet.

"You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?" Pyrrha responded.

"What? You got a problem?" Cardin snapped.

"No, I have the answer." she said before turning back to Doctor Oobleck. "It's night vision. Many faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."

"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured." Blake added. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." she snarled as she turned towards Cardin.

The class was awed at Blake's sass. Cardin loses his cool and stood up before Doctor Oobleck immediately called him out.

"Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat."

I chuckled, I really didn't give a flip about Cardin and his tough guy demeanor, but I enjoy seeing people like him getting what they deserved. Doctor Oobleck then suddenly zoomed at me again. "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings." he said before taking another sip.

I groaned. I think this is what I get for not taking Bleu's history lessons seriously.

"Now! Moving on!" he continued.

When the bell rang the class ended, everyone left the room for recess, except for me and Cardin of course. Cardin smirked then moved next to my seat and tackled me, hoping he'd get a reaction out of it. I responded by simply moving to the next column while doing my best not to giving he wants.

Before he begins to reprimand us, the doc took a sip of his coffee, as usual. "Mr. Arc, Mr. Winchester. You two have been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is..." he took yet another sip of his coffee before putting it down on his desk. "It stops now! You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best of the best, so I expect you to act like it." he then looked in front of me. "Especially you, Mr. Arc! You have a family name to live up to. If you intend to uphold its honor, then I suggest you start taking your lessons seriously."

"Heh." Cardin uttered smugly before Doctor Oobleck turned to him.

"Don't think I have forgotten about you, Cardin! Not only your grades have been falling back, you have an attitude problem that needs fixing as well! I do not want you causing any more trouble at my class!" Oobleck told him, causing his smirk to disappear while I boredly watch him.

"I expect both of you to take this as a consideration to start improving your performances for this subject. History is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it... you're destined to repeat it. Pages 51 to 91! I want an essay on my desk by next class! Now! Run along." he took one last sip before blurring out of the classroom.

That was thankfully quicker than I expected, it would have been annoying if this took long enough for me not to take my lunch.

I walked out of the classroom and saw Pyrrha waiting for me. I suspiciously looked at my back to make sure Cardin doesn't try anything funny, which he did try as he looked like he was about to push me before he froze when I saw him, so instead, he pompously sniggered at me and gave me two pats at the back before walking away.

"Is he bothering you?" Pyrrha asked, folding her arms as she glared at Cardin.

"Eh, don't worry about him," I said. "Let's just go eat." We then walked to the cafeteria together. She kept eyeing on Cardin, as she does not trust him one bit. While I cannot really blame her for that, I think she's a worrying too much. Sure, Losechester has a track history of being an arrogant jerk, but he really isn't that much of a BMOC **[1]** he thinks of himself as. In fact, he only picks on weaker students, which is very pathetic even for someone like me. This attitude tends to backfire a lot, so I don't need to worry about him as much as he needs to worry about himself.

**=o=**

  1. _Big Man On Campus. A term used to describe a well-known and influential male student, which Winchester barely qualified as. However, it is often used derisively towards someone deemed conceited, which described him more appropriately._



* * *

During lunch, I ate much more excessively as I wasn't able to eat in the morning since I woke up late and didn't have time to take breakfast and just went to class after a quick shower.

Nora was telling a story about one her of adventures with Ren, although judging by Ren's commentary, she didn't seem to be the most reliable of narrators.  **[1]**

"So! There we were, in the middle of the night..." Nora told.

"It was day." Ren corrected, holding his mug with one of his palms.

"We were surrounded by Ursai..."

"They were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!" she stood up, suddenly shouting.

"Two of 'em." Ren exhaled.

"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!" she proudly finished her story as she sat down.

I'm pretty sure those 'Ursa' skins stopped existing long before she claimed to have sold them.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." Ren sighed. I got to give it to him. He has been living with Nora for half of his life, while I was still doing my best to get used to her demeanor since day one. Thankfully, I was patient enough not to lose my temper on her and kept her on my good side since her strength and loyalty was essential to my survival.

"Jaune, do you need help with your grades?" Pyrrha asked.

No reason to lie about this, I have been planning to improve my grades, as they have become more of a problem recently. But as much as I want Pyrrha's help, I don't want her to overdo her assistance, otherwise, I'll be owing her a lot after what she'll about go through. "Uh, yeah. But don't worry! I'll take care of it myself. It's my responsibility at all."

She hummed. "Well, if you ever need help, you can always come to me."

"Thanks, Pyrrha," I said as I went back into eating.

"Hey Jaune, has Cardin been bothering you a lot lately?" Ruby asked.

"Who?" I asked as if he wasn't a big deal, which he really wasn't.

"Cardin Winchester? The guy who has been picking on you since the first week of school." she answered.

"Oh, him? He just likes to mess around. Nothing special about him at all."

"He's a bully."

Oh please, you're giving him way too much credit. Losechester is nothing more than a minor nuisance at worst; almost everything he did to me is so petty, they could be easily ignored or fixed within the span of four seconds. I refuse to let him have a major impact on one part of my life. The only attention he deserves is the wrath of the Beacon staff.

"He's just an idiot. He'll get either bored or better yet, punished, soon enough." I said before turning around after hearing Cardin laugh. I saw him and his lackeys picking on that rabbit girl, whose name I recalled to be Velvet or something. While to me he comes off your resident tough-guy wannabe, he is really a bully to some. Though, if you ask me, that doesn't make him much more threatening; a simple tattle to Miss Goodwitch would be enough to wipe that dumb look on his face.

"Well, I hope you're right," Ruby said.

"Atrocious, I cannot stand people like him," Pyrrha remarked.

"He's not the only one," Blake said.

"Must be hard being a faunus." Yang commented.

"Well, we can't just sit here and watch!" Nora stood up before looking at me. "We need to do something!"

"Psh. I dunno. Break his legs?" I jokingly suggested as I go back to finishing my meal. I was about to tell her I was being sarcastic and that we should report this behavior to the faculty in seriousness when unfortunately...

"You got it, Leader!" she said before she started skipping towards the table where Cardin and Velvet were at.

I almost choked on my nuggets when I realized she took my word seriously and was heading off to carry the deed. Knowing Nora, she's crazy enough to actually do it. "Nora! Wait—No! Stop!" I quickly headed to Cardin's table.

"Ow! That hurts!" Velvet grunted as Losechester pulled her ears. "Please stop."

"I told you it was real!" Cardin said.

"Man, what a freak!" said Russel, the one with the terrible mohawk.

Cardin was suddenly turned around by Nora before being pulled from his seat then being pushed to the ground.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Cardin angrily questioned.

"I'm here to bring you to your doom~!" Nora answered in a sinister voice.

She then started to grab one of his legs as she starts to pull it while pushing his pelvis with her right foot.

"Agh!" Cardin grunted in pain. Before it was about to get any worse, I pulled Nora while Cardin's teammates were about to intervene, allowing Velvet to take her chance to run away from there.

"No, Nora, No! We are not breaking anyone's legs! I was only kidding when I said that."

"He deserves it!" she said while trying to get out of my arms.

"Nora. Stop. That's an order." I dissuaded, which made her stop resisting before letting her go.

"We're warning you, Cardin. If you don't stop, Jaune is going to kick your butt!"

"Nora…" I sighed.

"Isn't that right, Ren?" she looked at a Ren, who was behind me with Pyrrha and Ruby. Weiss, Blake, and Yang stood at the other side behind Cardin and his goons in case they get the wrong idea.

"Uh, that's pretty plausible," Ren said.

"Ren!" I yelled. I was trying to get Cardin to ignore me, and he wasn't exactly helping. I then looked at to Cardin and apologized. "Look, I am so sorry, we'll leave now." I walked with my team as Cardin and his team glares at me.

I didn't want to make a scene, it will only give Cardin a legitimately good reason to hate me, not to mention it'll also get us in trouble for assaulting a fellow student outside of a friendly duel.

"Let's go guys," I said as I lead my team out of the cafeteria.

**=o=**

  1. _Reminds of you something, don't you think?_



* * *

To prepare for Dust Studies, I went to my locker to grab my textbook and the essay I spent all night trying to finish. My team and most of the others were already waiting in class so I was the only person on the locker room.

At least that was I thought.

When I was about to close my locker. I felt my hoodie got pulled off before I got pinned to another locker, I opened my eyes and saw Cardin grabbing by the collar of my hoodie along with his little band of juvenile hooligans behind him, one of them, Sky looked really nervous about this.

"You thought you were so funny back there, didn't you, Arc?" Cardin fumed.

Oh dammit, I knew this would happen, just not this early. Losechester can waste his breathe yelling at me for all he wants, I've dealt with worse. "Come on, I said I was sorry."

"Yeah, right, like I would believe that easily." he replied, "Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

As a matter of fact, he kinda was. Not everyone got to Beacon because they had good grades or were impressive enough, some were able to attend because of their influential connections and just happened to be skilled enough to be accepted. Which explains why there were some mediocre students around here despite claiming that they only accept 'the best of the best'.

Russel then swiped my essay. "Oh, what's this? Your essay for Professor Peach?" he chuckled. "Thanks, Cardin's been nagging me to make one of these for him. Nothing a simple name change and a reprint can't handle."

That is when I started to lose patience, I tolerated them for being petty morons and now they're really asking to get suspended. "Give that back, now!" I demanded as I struggled out from Cardin's grasp.

"Make me." Russel taunted.

"Guys, I think we're going a little too far." the one with the blue hair shuddered.

"Oh shut up, Sky! We need to show this little runt that Cardin Winchester is not to be messed with!" Cardin said.

"But he—"

"I don't care if you buy that stupid story from the news! He is going to pay for getting that crazy witch of his to almost breaking my leg!"

Well, good to know that my one month of fame has expired, at least, probably because Northern Sanus found something else to obsess with. However, I did not appreciate calling Nora a 'crazy witch'. Crazy? Yes. A witch? Wait till she hears about this.

"Let's see how you like it when someone screws you over!" he yelled before shoving me into my locker and closing it.

Dammit, Cardin, how much of a sore loser are you to do this over a dumb mistake. "You're making a mistake, Cardin! Let me out now!" I exclaimed.

"Not in a million years, bunny boy!" Cardin replied. "Now… uh, how do you make lockers launch again?"

"Oh, you need to put in a separate code." Another voice answered, which was from Dove, I think.

"Dammit! And I thought it'll be that simple!" Cardin slammed my locker, which made me shake for a bit. "Alright Jauney-Boy, just tell your locker's launch code and just get this over with."

Seriously, why would I tell you that? Unless I could trick him into not using it, which was a clever idea at the time. "Oh-five-one-four-three-one" I said in a sarcastic tone, little did he know, that was really my launch code. If I learned anything about hiding the truth, if you confessed in a way that makes people think you're not being serious, no one will believe it.

"Nice try, Jauney-boy but I'm not gonna open your locker for you."

His loss. If he is not putting that down, he is not going to see anything blasting off in his little space program.

"Now tell me you're launch codes so we could watch you fly! Or we'll…"

"Or what?" I asked.

"Shut up! We'll…" Cardin paused. "Uh, any idea guys?"

There was no answer. I thought I got him good, that was before I realized I missed an important part that immediately made me regret my decision and for not thinking this through.

He lost patience and smashed the keypad. "Screw this! I think you're better off staying there for a while, its good enough for me!"

I forgot that he can just leave me here trapped. If I knew that earlier, I would have tricked him into opening this locker somehow. The lockers here don't have a latch from the inside in case someone got locked in.

"See you later, loser! Have fun breathing in there and thanks for the essay!" Cardin mocked with laughter from his team followed while his face on the vents disappears.

I then saw Sky on the vents, he quickly looked at the side before whispering "I'm really sorry." he then quickly caught up to his teammates.

To make things worse, the bell rang, indicating that class was starting, making me late for Professor Peach's class without an essay to pass.

I tried slamming the walls of the locker door and calling for help but it was no use, there was nobody in the locker room except me as everyone was now taking their class.

I took out my scroll and attempted to contact someone at my team to come and help me, only to get a screen that says 'Calling and Messaging are disabled during class hours', which made me bang my head at the door. Couldn't they at least add an 'Emergency Call' feature in case of situations like this?!  **[1]**

I sighed and put the scroll back into the pocket and tried to ram the locker doors open which also failed since I heard that these lockers were made to survive long falls. I gave up and just accepted the fact that I was missing Professor Peach's class—in a claustrophobic locker with little ventilation no less.

If I had known this would happen, I would have let Nora break Cardin's legs. I don't care if I get in trouble, it's a lot better than being trapped in here.

**=o=**

  1. _The feature actually once existed, but it was removed by Ozpin when he discovered that students were abusing it. He thought that nobody needed it anyway, as nobody calls for help, and that as Huntsmen, students are expected to be capable of handling oneself during an unexpected event._



* * *

I spent an entire hour and a half trapped inside a locker when it felt longer than that. To say it was an unpleasant experience was an understatement; there was barely enough room for me to breathe in and I was wearing my armor at the time, which made the whole thing much more uncomfortable. It was also hot in here, I have been sweating since the first ten minutes and now the back of my hoodie is drenched. I found myself almost passing out a couple of times out of suffocation because of how the little air I'm getting.

I ended up taking a nap to hopefully speed things up. I slowly woke up after hearing the bell, which sounded very wonderful at the time. I soon heard some familiar voices calling my name, the voices become much louder and audible, making it clear that they're in the locker room. I used my remaining strength to bang the door, signaling them here.

"Jaune!" I heard Pyrrha's voice as I heard footsteps become increasingly rapid and louder, they stopped after I saw the reassuring faces of my teammates through the vent, albeit barely since the opening allows for a limited view.

"Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrha asked with concern in her voice.

"Two…nine…" I cracked my voice, mouthing off the numbers of my locker's code with every breath I still had.

"Jaune, what are you—?"

"Quiet!" Ren interjected, gesturing for everyone to concentrate on my broken speech.

"…six…three…oh…one."

"Two-nine-six-three-zero-one! Type it in!" Ren directed. Pyrrha nodded and typed the code I gave them.

The locker doors opened, I inhaled deeply as I stepped out before collapsing. They turned me around to face the ceiling. I panted heavily as I gazed at my teammates squatting in front of me while I lie on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked.

"You look a little red!" Nora said.

"Wa...ter…" I faltered.

"He needs water now!" Ren pointed.

"Okie-Doke'!" Nora zoomed away and almost immediately returned with a bottle of water. "Done!"

Pyrrha took the bottle from Nora and opened its cap before feeding it to me. "Here"

I grabbed hold of the bottle and chugged all of its contents within mere seconds. Spending ninety minutes caged in a tight locker can dehydrate you pretty quick. "Thanks," I said as I continued panting. "More please."

"Aye!" Nora saluted zooming out again.

Ren and Pyrrha helped me up, I leaned at the nearest locker as I was having trouble trying to balance myself as I was still suffering from the headache I just got.

"I'll get you a towel," Ren said before bolting out.

"What happened? You were missing last class, we were so worried" Pyrrha questioned. "Let me guess… Cardin."

I nodded as I scowled at the thought of his face.

Pyrrha's hands gripped and her eyes narrowed. "That Winchester… He went too far, you know I will really break his legs."

At that point, I would have allowed her and gladly watch that but digressed because I believe he deserves a more severe punishment.

Nora came back with three water bottles, one of them standing above her head. "Here ya go!"

"Thanks again," I said to Nora before taking the bottles and drank back my strength and lowered my body temperature. Ren also came back gave me a white towel.

"What were you doing there anyway?" Nora asked.

"Cardin." I simply answered while wiping the sweat off my forehead.

"Oh, that does it!" Nora said furiously. "Just say the word and I'll break his legs!" she punched one of her palms.

"You'll get your chance, Nora, but right now I need to talk to Professor Goodwitch." I said, as much as I want to confront Cardin and have Nora go berserk on him and his team, I needed to make this whole mess clear to Miss Goodwitch first. I don't care if I get called and labeled a snitch, he just stole an essay I spent all night working on for crying out loud. "Right to combat class, I'll meet you all there."

Ren and Nora nodded before heading out. Pyrrha meanwhile held to my shoulders. "Take care this time."

I nodded at her advice before she followed Ren and Nora.

I went to the hallways and waited for Miss Goodwitch. She then appeared a few minutes later, holding her tablet as usual. I approached her before she managed to get to the combat hall. It took some guts approaching someone like her since she's basically that one dreaded teacher found in the school, but she's mostly doing her job trying to look over a school full of brats with wacky weapons, and if Cardin was afraid of anyone, it's her.

"Professor Goodwitch, can you excuse me for a second?"

"Mr. Arc! Professor Peach recently reported that you were absent from her class. You better explain yourself!" she told me.

"I'm sorry ma'am, I would have attended had not Cardin Winchester and his team trapped me in my own locker. I couldn't call for help because scrolls are disabled during class." I explained.

She sighed. "Mr. Arc, those are some bold claims to accuse your fellow students of such a heinous act, however, I'm willing to believe you because Mr. Winchester has been a nuisance recently."

That's reassuring. All I wanted was to see Cardin pay for making me stay at my locker and stealing my essay.

"But even if they're true. I cannot do anything at the moment, I am occupied into commencing today's class which is vital as it reintroduces the combat matches since last month. Mr. Winchester will be given a trial once this class is complete."

"I understand, professor."

"Which begs the question." she said, adjusting her glasses. "Haven't you been able to defend yourself against Winchester then? This school assumes that you are capable of standing your own ground."

"I was caught off-guard, ma'am. I was unarmed and they had me bound and surrounded. I was not able to fight back." I explained, the whole thing was so sudden that I wasn't able to plan it out properly.

"I guess that's understandable."

"He also stole my essay for Dust Studies and passed it off as his own," I added. I didn't care if it was too late to get those grades as long as Cardin wasn't getting any of them.

"Is that true?"

"He reprinted it with his name, I still have the original document on my computer, which was marked as written on an earlier date."

"I'll look into it then." she sighed. "Say, do you want to face Cardin today in a fair match?"

I raised my brow at the question. "Excuse me, professor?"

"You said you were not given a chance to defend yourself when he tormented you. I thought it'd be fitting when he finds out what he was up against before I give him some proper punishment. That way, he would learn humility while we discipline him."

I thought about it for a bit before deciding to settle with it. I was too infuriated at him that I didn't feel like pretending to be helpless then. I decided to stop holding back and humiliate Losechester just for once. "I'd be delighted to."

"Good. Your match will be the last one before the end of the class. Students like Winchester needs to be reminded that Beacon is no place for bullies. I'm glad Caiaphas's son would do the honors."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"And don't think I have forgotten about your grades, young man. Your theoretical performances are still mediocre at best." she bluntly prompted.

Since I expected her too eventually that bring up, I wasn't fazed by her reminder. "Of course, ma'am." I nodded.

"Now, proceed to class. I will follow shortly."

It went easier than anticipated. I thought that it would take more persuading for Miss Goodwitch to take action, but it turned out, seem that we have a mutual agitation towards Losechesters.

I ran to the combat hall and went inside and saw Nora and Losechester trying to strike at each other while Ren does his best to restrain them both with Pyrrha and Cardin's goons standing behind their respective teammates. Some people who were watching seemed eager for a fight while others looked concerned.

"You're freaking insane, do you know that?!" Cardin shouted.

"Better than being a no-good bully!" Nora retorted.

"Both of you, Get. A. Grip!" Ren said, doing his best pushing back both parties from each other.

"I agree. As much as I want to see this vermin get what he deserves. We mustn't get in trouble. We should save it for a match." Pyrrha stated before turning her gaze at me.

They all suddenly stopped after they saw me approaching them.

"Ah, look who it is," Cardin said as he slowly walks toward me. "So how's your stay at—", he was interrupted by Pyrrha who stood on his way as she scowls at him.

"What's a matter? Need your girlfriend to fight your own battles for you?" Cardin taunted.

I tried to respond but Pyrrha beat me to it. "You have gotten one step too far with him, Winchester."

"You didn't like how I repaid Jauney-boy for almost breaking my legs? Don't worry there is more where that came from." Cardin scoffed.

Can't wait. Hopefully, you won't get suspended or even expelled so I can see how you pull it off, I sardonically thought.

"If you know what's good for you, you better start leaving us alone!" Pyrrha responded.

The doors of the entrance opened as Miss Goodwitch enters the room and saw all of us standing. "All of you, please be seated." she ordered.

"But Prof—", Nora tried to explain before Miss Goodwitch raised her hand.

"No excuses. If you're holding a grudge you can save it for the matches."

Nora groaned but knew she couldn't do anything at the moment and obeyed her word. Ren sat down with her and patted her back.

"Hmph. I think you'll learn not to mess with me better in a match." he smirked.

To give an impression of someone nervous, I responded with a gulp. Not that I'm actually scared of Losechester, I wanted him to underestimate me, so he could act as smug as possible before wiping the floor with it.

"Watch yourself, Jauney-boy." he walks away with his peers, with Sky nervously looking back.

Pyrrha continues to scowl at him, but I told her to calm down and walked her to our seats beside Ren and Nora.

"How degenerate." Pyrrha crossed her arms, still angry over Cardin.

"Don't worry, Pyrrha! Justice will soon be brought to Cardin and our team's dignity will never falter!" Nora said. "Jaune, just say the word and I will break his legs!"

As much as I want to see Losechester in a wheelchair. I'm still going to my plan to get back to him through legal means. "Actually, you don't need to do anything. I have it all figured it out." I turned at my teammates and give them a smirk.

Nora was confused before her face shifted into an evil grin. "Ohh, I like where this is going. The suspense is killing me!" she said, rubbed both of her hands.

"You won't be disappointed." I nodded.

"So, what are you planning to do?" Pyrrha inquired.

"Just wait and see."

We all directed our attention to Miss Goodwitch, who was now in the arena. "Good afternoon, students. I'm sure you're all excited to know that today we are resuming combat matches for this class."

"Woo!" Nora cheered along some other students thirsting for some action.

"But first, since we have plenty of time. You still have to do some warm-up exercises first as usual and spend half of another hour reviewing on what you've learned for the past month."

The same people who cheered, including Nora, groaned. Nevertheless, they were still excited that combat matches are back.

"You already know the drill, so it is best for you to be on with it if you wanted the matches to start sooner."

We all lined up outside the classroom to start our daily warm-ups for combat class. Cardin looked back and sneered at me, I coldly looked back as I plan on how to beat him in the match. I had most of everyone's combat styles and moves noted, Cardin is no exception. People like Cardin tend to act smug to anyone who he thinks is below him, which would surely cause him not to fight seriously. If I take that to my advantage, then the fight is already been won.

* * *

Combat class is a favorite among Huntsmen-in-training, and for good reason; it is practical, entertaining and educational that it's no mystery why it's two times longer than other classes. Even I find myself attached to the subject since it gives me insight into my classmate's fighting ability as I take note of them as it may be proved beneficial for the future. Today, my knowledge of other students would be put to the test, particularly Cardin's. When I was observing him during this class for the past month, I learned that he uses a large mace that apparently could release explosions on impact, which tells me that I have to be careful when blocking it with my shield. Thankfully, Mom's shield is known to be almost indestructible, I saw her demonstrate it against missiles and lasers and it still remained intact. Plus, his mace is shown to be heavy, added with his armor that weighs him, which would make him durable, with the cost of his mobility. In short, I actually didn't need to worry about much. Since I was able to win against dad, my sisters and a bandit lord, then this would be child's play by comparison.

The last hour of combat training was spent on matches, which were exciting to the bloodthirsty students since that they were finally able to fight and be graded in the process. So far, the fights have been one versus one, probably because Miss Goodwitch wants to go easy with the fights for today and wants to see what the students learned when fighting alone. I noticed Team CRDL trying to get themselves volunteered which Miss Goodwitch did her best to ignore them since she's saving Cardin to face me for the last match before the class ends.

"Maus Itter's aura is in the red. Piper Rivers has been declared winner." Miss Goodwitch announced after the lights went back on.

The two participants return back to their sit before Miss Goodwitch steps back in the arena. "We still have time for one more match before we could conclude this class."

I took a deep breath as I prepared for my name and Cardin to be called.

"Jaune Arc of Team JNPR. Cardin Winchester of Team CRDL, please enter the arena."

As I was about to stand up, Pyrrha held my shoulder, turning my gaze at her emerald eyes. "Be careful, Jaune."

"Yeah, kick his butt, Fearless Leader!" Nora said.

"Will do." I nodded.

I walked toward the arena, unsheathing my sword and collapsing my shield. While feigning anxiety to give Cardin a false impression of an inadequate joke who don't even deserved to be fought with all his capabilities, looking at his stupid overconfident smile as I faced him on the arena.

I know that this going to get the professors attention, but they already know who I am and what my team was capable of, and I'm sure Ozpin has been making plans for me the moment he formed my team. So there wasn't anything to worry about that I already have; if they see me as an accomplished warrior and expected me to act like one, then so be it. I just wanted Cardin off my back.

"Hey, Jauney-boy. Do me a favor and don't forfeit early." Cardin scoffed, putting his mace at his shoulder.

"I don't plan to, Cardin. Just please take it easy." I said, still pretending to be nervous.

"Heh. Maybe. But only because you're so pitiful, I'll be only gentle for a bit, don't you worry."

Looks like I got him where I want. Next thing to do is make this moment something he won't forget.

I gave a nervous chuckle to delude Cardin for the last time. The lights outside the arena turn off, holographic screens showing both of our aura gauges emerged. I gave a faint smirk, knowing how this would go.

"Ready? Begin!" Miss Goodwitch commenced.

I held my sword tight and remained calm as Cardin horizontally swung his mace aiming toward my face which I dodged right in time then used my shield to uppercut his face, pushing him back. He shook his head, not knowing what just happened. The next thing he saw after clearing his vision was me stepping forward before giving him a series of rapid slashes which he was too stunned to counter, quickly draining his aura. He stumbled back before getting angry and charged, trying to slam me with his mace, which I dodged by simply sidestepping, barely affected the mini-explosion he caused. Once he turned to me, I bashed his face with my shield, knocking him to the ground.

He opened his eyes and looked at his screen, he was shocked to see that his aura levels were already at the red and mine still full, it was already over.

"WHAT THE FU—!"

The buzzer rang and the lights turned back on before anyone knew it. I heard the audience murmuring shock, amazement, and confusion. I guess the so-called Defender of Podunk was back with vengeance, though, I have pretty much gotten to the point where it barely bothers me. As shameful and undeserving it is, being on a pedestal does have some of its perks.

Honestly, I was pretty scared that it wouldn't work out as planned, but it turned out to be comically easy since Dad and my sisters offered more challenge when sparring with them. Hearing Cardin scream in agony was pretty satisfying too.

"Jaune Arc wins the match… by flawless victory within thirteen seconds… A new record among freshmen." Miss Goodwitch stated, who sounded just as surprised as everyone else.

There was an awkward silence in the audience until clapping was heard from Nora. "That's our Fearless Leader!" she cheered. The rest of my team joined in followed by Team RWBY then the rest of the class. Some shouts and whistles were heard during the applause.

Cardin gripped his hands and tried to get up, needless to say, he wasn't pleased getting beaten by someone who he taught was someone who was lower than dirt in thirteen seconds. "What?! No!"

"Class." Miss Goodwitch said, which silenced the audience. "Cardin, were you aware on who you just faced with?"

"Does it really matter?" he responded bitterly, whose body was faltering after recently getting beat up.

"He is the son of Caiaphas Arc! One of the most exceptionally skilled individuals I know. Being trained under him, you were outmatched the moment you faced him, added that you let your guard down hence why he was able to defeat you within seconds. Did the introductory match with Miss Hisakawa taught you nothing?"

Cardin stares at her, faintly grunting.

"Mr. Winchester, while you have proven yourself to have fighting skill sufficient enough for accepted within this academy. You need to humble yourself. Arrogance is one of the leading causes of death of in the field, along with incompetence."

Cardin just distraughtly looked at the ground. Miss Goodwitch then turned her gaze toward me. "Mr. Arc, due to your background, I anticipated that you'll be able to handle this skillfully, but even then you have still managed to catch my surprise."

"Oh, it was nothing. I only followed what I learned from my father." I said as modestly as I could.

"Is that so?" she mused. "I guess one opponent must have been too easy for you. Since we still have time, you could show the class how one extraordinarily skilled warrior could handle several opponents."

Wait, what?

She turned to the audience. "Since the match ended rather too quickly. We will have another match. Only this time, Jaune will face the rest of Cardin's team, since the last match was proven to be too trivial for him and his aura levels are still full."

The class cheered with anticipation. Meanwhile, my jaw dropped as my mind went into a panic. I did not expect to face everyone else on Cardin's band of delinquency after humiliating him. Apparently, I was too good and beating Cardin that quickly proved that it was not enough for her. I really wasn't sure if I could handle Cardin's teammates ganging up on me. I did my best to remain calm, I didn't want Team CRDL to notice my insecurities and get them to exploit it.

"Would the rest of Team CRDL kindly enter the arena?"

Russel and Dove stood up and dragged Sky into following since he was too hesitant to go.

"Mr. Winchester. Please go back to your seat and rest. Your team will take care of this."

He angrily hobbled out of the arena. "You won this one, Arc." Cardin spat when he passed through me. He then approached his teammates who just came out of the entrance. "Crush him."

His team minus Sky nodded. They all pulled out their respective weapons; Russel with his dual daggers with dust chambers, à la Weiss' rapier. Dove with his sword-revolver, which is actually a decent weapon if you ask me. And finally Sky's weapon, which a halberd-rifle like Bleu's weapon, which meant I already know how to counter it, especially considering that Sky is less-skilled and far more anxious than Bleu, who was already a full-fledged Huntress when she challenged me. Russel and Dove both have faces with vengeance written all over them, Sky, of course, was meanwhile whimpering.

"You just wasted your luck on the last match, bunny jacket. Big mistake thinking you can get back on us." Russel said.

"Yeah, you should know your place, nerd!" Dove dissed.

Nerd? You can't be serious right now. I feel less pathetic after hearing that. Say what you want about me, but at least I don't use insults that sound like they came from crappy high school dramas that were written by out-of-touch 40-something adults.

"Hey, uh, just so you know, this isn't anything personal." Sky said to me.

"What was that, Sky?" Russel turned to him.

"Uh, nothing." he lied.

Just as I thought I was done with birds. I went back into my battle stance and told myself to remember my training. Being somewhat familiar with these idiots and without Cardin's leadership, they'll all be focused on trying to put me down without regards to tactics.  **[1]**

"You can do it, Jaune!" Pyrrha motivated.

"Yeah, show them who's boss!" Nora stood raising her fist.

"We believe in you!" Ruby cheered.

All the lights on the room, barring the one on the arena, of course, all turned off while Cardin's aura screen changed to show all of his teammate's aura gauges as well another gauge that represents the team's overall aura. Miss Goodwitch then started giving out the instructions.

"This will be a three versus one battle. You will be given five minutes for this match. When the timer runs out, whichever team that has the most aura combined wins assuming an entire team hasn't been knocked out by then. Have I made myself clear?"

All of us nodded.

"Good. You may begin if ready."

We continued staring at each other for a few more seconds when all of a sudden, Russel fired a round of fire dust which I blocked just right in time. Lowering my shield, I saw him running towards me before leaping, ready to thrust both of his daggers in a reverse grip. I raised my shield again and blocked his strike before using it to push him back, I went on to parry all of his attacks with my sword before looking at my right and saw Dove approaching me as he was about to swing down his sword. I deflected him mid-swing with my own sword and went to clash blades with while fending off Russel with my shield.

Dove suddenly rushes back and switched his weapon to a gun mode, I quickly bashed Russel's face with my shield before turning my shield towards Dove and block his gunshots. I then sensed something coming towards my legs so I leaped up and looked down and saw a halberd horizontally sweep near the ground. I turned my head back and saw Sky giving a nervous chuckle. I chose to ignore him for the moment since he was already shaken and that his buddies were still actively trying to pin me down. A bullet ran near my face, making me look back at Dove who quickly starts reloading since his chamber ran out. I used this opportunity to focus on Russel who attempted to flank me from the other side. I blocked his flurry of slashes with my sword before clashing with him as I continue to block Dove's gunshots at the back until he switched back to his sword and tried to strike, I quickly turned around while swinging my shield at Russel's face as I parried Dove's attack. I suddenly heard a gunshot and quickly turned towards Sky with the shield covering me. I then bashed the shield on Dove, trembling him back and making him open to attack.

After giving him a few slashes, I quickly dodged back from a thrust from Sky's halberd before clashing blades with Russel at the back. He flipped back and started firing electric dust which made me dart around the room before I got close him, causing him to stop and jumped to the side before lunging at me while rolling in mid-air.

Show-off, I thought. I caught him with my shield and shoved him to my back, making him fall to the ground before I sliced his aura to the red while he was lying.

"Russel Thrush is out for the match!" Miss Goodwitch announced.

"Dammit!" Russel cursed as he slammed the floor.

One down, two to go. I looked at Dove and Sky, who was furious and frightened respectively. I bolted toward them while they tried to shoot me down with their guns. I engaged Sky who went to block my slash with his polearm, before turning my attention to Dove, using my shield to bash away his defense then turning back, shoving away the tip of Sky's weapon before it fired and pushed him back. I went back to Dove and swung my sword, causing him to block and parry before sweeping his legs under him, collapsing him to the ground. I gave him one last swing of my sword as his aura lowers to the red.

"Dove Bronzewing is out! Only Sky Lark remains on Team 2!" Miss Goodwitch announced. The screen showing Team _RDL's aura has Russel and Dove both crossed out with Sky being only one left. The team's overall aura is at the orange, with only 1/3 of it remaining.

I turned my gaze towards Sky, who was shuddering like there was no tomorrow. Since he was the least worse among the team in terms of personality and the only one there who thought this entire thing is a farce, I'll go easy on him. I stormed towards him and proceeded to overwhelm him with a flurry of slashes. He wasn't able to attack since he was too occupied trying to block everything I throw at him. Eventually, he had enough and threw the towel while his aura was still light-green.

"This is hopeless!" he yelled. "I forfeit!"

The buzzer rang and lights turned back on as Miss Goodwitch walked back to the arena "Jaune Arc has once again, won the match."

The room was bombarded with applause, I looked at my team and saw Pyrrha standing up and clapping as hard as she could while Nora jumped while raising her fist to the air then giving Ren a hug who was noticeably smiling. The only person who wasn't who wasn't cheering was obviously Cardin, who was sitting with his arms folded, glowering at his team's defeat.

"Good work. Mr. Arc. As expected from your family. You truly are an exceptional fighter." Miss Goodwitch commended.

Taking on Cardin's entire team wasn't the plan at all. I chose to follow my training instincts and win because I had to meet their expectations and Cardin would continue harassing me with more ammunition if I lost. Cardin's team mostly lost because they were over their heads. Had they been someone else and more serious, I'd probably be dead by now.

"Mr. Lark. While you chose to make a decision that is normally frowned upon, I cannot blame you for it. I am somewhat pleased to know that you're aware that you have little chance of winning and accepted defeat." she then looked at Russel and Dove, who both were standing in the sidelines, flustered and shaken by their defeat. "As for the rest of you. You need to plan your attacks if you are to face someone who is levels above you. Just because an opponent is outnumbered, it doesn't instantly mean you have the upper hand. A skilled individual can make a quantity of a group meaningless."

"Can we go back to our seats now?" Russel whined.

"Not yet. You still have something to answer for. That goes the same for you, Mr. Arc." Miss Goodwitch responded.

Oh boy, here it comes.

She turned back to the audience. "That is all for the day. Remember, everyone—the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!" she announced, exciting the students; most notably, Team RWBY, who were all pumped up after the mention of the tournament. Blake meanwhile, looked just as disinterested as ever.

The bell rang, ending all of the classes for today. Everyone left the combat hall so they could spend the rest of the day for themselves. Of course, me and Team CRDL stayed after class because of some unfinished business. The juvenile delinquents were lined up facing Miss Goodwitch's unimpressed face as I stood beside her.

"Cardin Winchester. While you and your friends of yours have been causing ruckus since the first day. I cannot be more disgusted with your behaviors of what you did to Mr. Arc a few hours ago." Miss Goodwitch scolded.

"But, ma'am. Even if that's true, then shouldn't Jaune be able to fend for himself. After all, he is an exceptional fighter, was he?"

Miss Goodwitch's eyes further narrowed. "Mr. Winchester, answer me this honestly: Do you think I'm stupid?"

Cardin flinched as he lost his grin and started to whimper that he couldn't answer. Miss Goodwitch continue to berate him. "Mr. Arc has already proven to be superior against you and your team. I'm sure Mr. Arc would have taken care of you. But he has the excuse of not being able to fight as he was unarmed and ambushed. Now normally, I would stay out of student's personal affairs as they are expected to deal with them themselves, but after hearing that you stole a student's essay and passing it as your own has caught my ire. Is that true?"

The quartet continued to shudder and sweat profoundly at the stern witch. "Don't lie. I will eventually find out." she intimidated. They looked at each other before giving in, making Cardin and Russel give a dim nod. "As I have suspected. Are you all trying to get expelled?! I cannot be more disappointed in you four right now. You will all stay at detention for the day. As for Mr. Winchester, you would be staying in detention for a week, I will also make sure that the essay you submitted to Professor Peach would not be graded, as they rightfully belonged to Mr. Arc."

Cardin was furious, but knew he could do nothing, so all he did was look down with the rest of his team.

"Now, I want you all to apologize to Mr. Arc here." she slightly pushed me on the back.

Cardin rolled his eyes and sighed. "Sorry, Jauney-boy." he said, disingenuously, of course…

"Politely…" Miss Goodwitch urged.

He groaned before apologizing again. "Alright, Alright! I'm sorry for being such a jerk, Jaune!"

"Yeah, sorry." Russel followed.

"I regret this…" Dove said.

"No hard feelings, right?" Sky weakly grinned.

"Good." she turned to me. "Mr. Arc, you may go now. You four stay. I am still not done with you."

I nodded before walking to the exit. I looked at them out of pity and saw Cardin's gaze still distraught at me. I shrugged it off and left the room. He had a lot to think about, so I'll let him take the hint. I had enough of them for the day and I wanted to refresh my mind after everything that happened these past hours.

After walking out the exit of the combat hall, I was greeted by the sight of my team and Team RWBY. All, where still congratulating me on my recent win.

"Here he is, the bane of CRDL!" Nora bounced.

Pyrrha went at my side with a satisfied look. "You did great, Jaune. I'm so proud of you."

"Looks like Cardin won't bother you for a while," Ren commented.

"Yeah! You showed those mean ole' bullies who they were messing with!" Nora cheered.

"You were amazing! You beat all of them with barely a scratch! Oh, you have got to teach me some time!" Ruby squealed.

"Looks like Vomit-Boy has promoted himself to Vomit-Man!" Yang quipped.

I could only smile at the praise my friends were giving me. "Thanks, guys, really. But I only did what I should be doing. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, after all."

"Oh, don't put yourself down, lady-killer. You beheaded a giant bird and put some birds to their place. I'd say your just good at what you do." Yang tapped the back of my armor. "I guess Cardin was a little  _jaundiced,_  eh?"

There was not a single laugh or groan but instead silent stares of confusion.

"Oh for fu—fudge's sake!" she swore. "I know some of you eggheads got that! Is it that right, Weiss-cream?"

"Do you seriously study the dictionary to make your puns?" Weiss responded.

"Hey, at least I try!"

I chuckled for a bit before getting my team to accompany me out. I needed a break after beating a bunch of bullies and I still have another essay to write, which I want to finish soon so I don't end up sleeping tomorrow, and not because of some mustached professor's tall tales.

**=o=**

  1. _Knowing Winchester's tactical knowledge. I doubt it would make much of a difference._



* * *

After that eventful day, Cardin and his team were noticeably quiet, not starting any trouble like they would normally do. Velvet was even surprised that he and his team just walked past her without a word or anything since she was a usual victim of his tormenting. I guess they learned their lesson yesterday and was hit hard by Miss Goodwitch's disciplinary action. Which is a relief, because it means I don't have to keep my head up for any more incoming spitballs. That immature crap was one of the few things that actually nag me about Cardin.

During Dust Studies, Professor Peach pardoned me for being absent from her class yesterday after she was informed of what happened. She had my essay graded for myself instead of Cardin. Though, she reminded me that I still have a lot to make up for, since my performance in Dust Studies wasn't exactly the best.

Before her class ended, she announced that the class will have a field trip to Forever Falls on the following day starting after recess and ends at dismissal, which meant there won't be combat class for the day, but Miss Goodwitch agreed to chaperone us during the trip.

I spent my time after class catching up with my studies, which also meant that team training had to be postponed. Nevertheless, my team decided to help me, even though they don't have to since they owe me nothing. It's probably because I acted too much of a good leader to them that they're always here to help. While I'm grateful for that, I'm worried that we'll never be even, they'll spend these years saving my rear and I find myself guilty that I may never properly repay them, hence I never felt comfortable getting help from people who were supposed to be my glorified meatshields.

When the field trip began. We traveled to Forever Fall via airship, which was a sight that I did not miss after remembering my past travel with it. Although the trip was short, lasting around only ten minutes or so, I was doing my best not to repeat the incident that happened on the first day; Ruby and Yang noticeably even stayed a few feet away from me during the duration of the flight. When we arrived, I left the airship with some minor headache, but at least I didn't throw up for once.

"Here we are students, Forever Fall! Now I want all of you to follow me and stay with your team, I don't want any of you wandering off." Miss Goodwitch said.

Forever Fall. While it's somewhat of an odd forest, having red grass and leaves instead of green, there was barely anything out of the ordinary at all. Aside from a few Grimm since it's the wilderness.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Miss Goodwitch stated while we were following her on the forest before halting after she turned back.

Cardin bumps on me while carrying a case with empty jars on it. He gave me a scowl before moving along.

"Be careful, Cardin. Those are fragile." Miss Goodwitch warned before turning back to the whole class. "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap." she pulled out a jar filled with red fluids. "However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm—so be sure to stay by your teammates."

Of course, it wouldn't be a forest without the Grimm lurking around and ruining nature. I checked my belt to make sure I still have my sword and scabbard. Can't afford to let your guard down these days.

"We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun!"

While the class split into their teams, meanwhile, I had mine accompany Team RWBY just to be safe and told them that it was more the merrier. They didn't seem to mind since we were close since the first week, not to mention Ruby wanted her team to get to know us better.

For whatever reason, I don't feel comfortable collecting sap—I suspect that I might be allergic to this stuff. When I filled my first jar, I already wanted to give up. This stuff could potentially kill me. I cannot imagine anyone drinking this.

I looked at my surroundings and saw the other fill their first jar. Ren went to fill another jar after giving one to Nora, who chugged all of it even before Ren could add a drop with the other jar.

Of course, I thought with slight repulsion.

I looked back into my jar and found out that it was suddenly opened and empty. I shook my head to assure that my vision was not playing with my head and looked closer and saw that it really was empty. I looked at my side and saw Nora with her mouth covered in sap.

"Mmm."

"Nora!" I yelled.

"Oops, sorry!" she giggled before dashing away.

I was initially annoyed but chose to laugh it off. It was the same classic Nora I endured for the past month. At least I don't have to deal with six more of them, well, Ruby might count since she is basically 'Nora: Lite', but she's not in my team and her enthusiasm is more uplifting than annoying.  **[1]**

"Need help?" Pyrrha asked as she approached me.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," I said as I tried to collect more sap and suddenly feeling dizzy again. "I think I'm allergic to this stuff though."

"Huh. Looks like you do need help." Pyrrha remarked. "Well, Nora drank all of my sap too. So how about you let me—."

"No no no, it's alright. We just need one sap. I'm sure it wouldn't kill me to fill another one up." I insisted.

"Oh. Okay. If you say so then." she looked down.

I think I made her believe that she was bothering me with her desire to help me out. So, I gave her an assurance that I'm still glad to have her my side. "Hey, Pyrrha."

"Yes, Jaune?"

"I want to thank you for supporting me for after all these days. I really appreciate it. Just don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

Her face brightened after that. "It was my pleasure, Jaune. But you shouldn't push yourself too hard as well. It's just that—you have been having trouble these past couple days and you have been refusing help from us. I'm worried."

"Hey, I'm an Arc. I can solve my own problems. You don't need to worry much about me."

She chuckled. "Well, I hope your right, Mister Arc."

I smirked at her response. "No need for formalities, Miss Nikos. After all, I—." I was interrupted when I felt something sting at my back. I touched it to see what it was and saw red fluids on my fingers.

I turned around and saw shattered glass on the ground. I looked up and saw Team CRDL pointing and laughing at me.

Did detention teach these morons nothing? They have the audacity to throw a sap on me while their leader was recently humiliated and was serving detention. What made them think it was a good idea to exact revenge just now?

"Oh, that does it." Pyrrha started marching toward them.

"Pyrrha, wait!" I called. She turned back with a perplexed expression. "I'm coming with you."

She smirked and we headed out to get Cardin together. They suddenly started to look frightened and hurriedly tried throw a jar of sap on her, only for her to effortlessly dodge it. They begin to panic as they started opening a box and released a swarm of rapier-wasps right after me.

I was startled by the swarm. I heard that these things are attracted to sweets and the sap was no exception. I turned back to make a run for it. I went outside the class parameter, trying to shake off and chased by the rapier-wasps around the forest for a while until I suddenly ended up running to an Ursa Major.

Wonderful. It's going to be Podunk all over again!

I ran back to the group in hopes that they'll be able to get rid of it. The rapier-wasps on the other hand, I cannot reach my own back to wipe it off and I didn't want to take off my armor yet especially with the Ursa behind my rear.

"Ursa~!" I screamed after I saw Pyrrha grabbing Cardin by the collar. Pyrrha turned her head and dropped Cardin, then pulled out her shield and xiphos and charged towards the Ursa, beginning with a shield bash to its forehead followed by thrusting her blade at it.

Team CRDL ran off, Pyrrha was holding off the Ursa, and the rapier wasps were still after me. I kept running aimlessly trying to think of a way to shake them off. The only plan I had was the good old 'run and live'.

I ran as fast and hard as I could, not looking back nor caring about where was I going, shaking off the swarm was the only thing I had in mind. As a result, I wasn't aware that I went a little too deep into the forest that I found two armed men wearing white vests and black hoods entering a cave. Without thinking if they were friendly or not, I went ahead and ran past them

"Hey, what the hell?" One of them said before they saw the rapier-wasps coming after them.

I went inside the cave. I looked back and see the two men getting swarmed, both of them struggling to get the wasps off. I watched with horror while I slowly walked back then turned around and was greeted with more armed men with the same outfits, pointing their guns at me. I saw that they were all wearing visors similar to Grimm masks, a sign that says that these people aren't exactly affable.

Bandits.  **[2]** Great. Just great.

Knowing, that these people are a bunch of criminals who could kill me in a heartbeat and aren't exactly big on fighting fair and honorably. The safest course of action was put to your hands up and hope for the best. I had my tracker on and I doubt that a bunch of bandits could handle some Huntsmen, well, one Huntress and a number of Huntsmen-in-training, really crazy Huntsmen-in-training.

I would have let myself get stung several times if I saw this coming, though.

Happy now, Losechester?

**=o=**

  1. _As her former partner, I can confirm that they're both true._
  2. _Jaune was not aware that he actually encountered The White Fang, which was much worse than bandits. Then again, he denied that he confronted something as bad as an outpost of a notorious international terrorist group._



* * *

_Editorial Note:_

_While Jaune was busy wandering off being chased by the rapier wasps before being captured by a White Fang subdivision. Ruby recorded the situation back at the class assignment when we were alerted by the presence of the Ursa Major on her personal memoirs, unknowingly filling the gaps caused by Jaune's typically self-centered writing._

The Red Rose Diaries: Trouble at Forever Falls

Things got weird on the field trip real fast. One second we were gathering sap as instructed by Miss Goodwitch, and then the next second, we saw Jaune getting chased by a bunch of flies, which Cardin might have to do something with, seeing how Pyrrha was really mad at him. It wasn't really that bad until Jaune came back with an Ursa Major chasing him. Pyrrha was trying to stop it. I got Team RWBY to go help her out. Ren and Nora weren't able to help because Nora passed out after drinking too much sap and Ren had to look after her.

I ordered Blake and Yang to bait the Ursa into slamming trees, causing it to get stunned, giving me, Weiss and Pyrrha the opportunity to absorb its damage safely. We repeated it a few times until we finished it off with a team attack to finally kill it. Blake gave a few slashes, then Yang punched it a few times before throwing it off the air when it would be trapped by Weiss' glyphs and I used my semblance to get close to it and sliced it down with the Crescent Rose. The Ursa fell as it started to evaporate. Miss Goodwitch came in and demanded what was going on. Pyrrha told her that Cardin and his team threw a jar of sap at Jaune and had rapier-wasps chase him, which made us wonder—where was Jaune?

Pyrrha pulled out her scroll to find where he was, she found her location and got Ren and Nora (who just woke up and was recovering) to follow her. We were ordered to stay and guard the area in case more Grimm come.

* * *

The bandits violently tied and dragged me to their camp inside the cave. The camp was pretty impressive and organized for a bunch of bandits, they even had banners of their emblem hanging around. Everyone there kept giving me dirty looks, with one of them even spitting on me. Looks like this bandit camp doesn't really like me, I know they're a menace to society, but they don't have a real reason to spite me. One could guess that these were El Segadore's ex-goons if that's true, then I'm really screwed.

They took me to a cage and pushed me inside. Before they could leave two of them entered the cage, one of them untying me, and the other pointing his gun on me to make sure I wasn't trying anything they don't want me to do.

"Your belongings—weapons, money, scrolls, surrender them to me." the one with the gun said after his buddy was untying me.

I have no choice but to comply. I gave them my stuff, they let me keep my armor as they didn't need it anyway, they sent my belongings to another room. The scroll was password protected, so I don't have to worry about them opening it and disabling the team tracker, even if they did manage to open it, they wouldn't know how to navigate on applications exclusive to Beacon students.

"So…" the same guy who was pointing his weapon at me said after leaving the cage and locking it. "Are you alone or are you with someone else?"

Normally, I'll tell the truth out of fear, but being the seasoned liar I am, I knew it would be better for me not to tell them the truth. It's only a matter of time until my team finds me, who just happens to be crazy enough to handle a bunch of bandits especially since Ren and Nora have experience fighting them and Pyrrha has fought worse. I just need to make them keep their guard down so that this would be over with quick.

"No, you gotta believe me! I'm just a lone traveler. I happen to end up getting swarmed by a bunch of rapier-wasps and happen to stumble upon you guys!"

"So you had nothing to do with the Huntsmen brats we found wandering around?" he inquired.

"Wait, there are Huntsmen here?" I asked to uphold my facade.

He paused for a moment before looking at me closer. I was worried that he'd recognize me from something. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

"Well, you don't look like a Huntsman." the bandit mentioned after he examined my clothes, which were just ordinary clothes with armor you can buy at your nearest blacksmith, making me pass as a civilian who just happened to be armed for the worse. "Don't get your hopes up, human. As long as this place remains hidden—no one will come for you. Hell, this probably might the last place you'll be in." he said before living with a laugh.

I gulped at the statement, but I also raised my brow when he called me 'human'. Is this one of those human-hating faunus? If so, then wonderful.

I sat down waiting for help to come. I really need to start thinking straight while trying to flee from danger. I keep getting into these situations because of stupidity and I'll be damned if I let it repeat again.

I examined the camp, looking for possible escape routes, as well as making some sort of plan B in case no one comes. I saw the bandit who was guarding have a key on the back of his belt, while tempting, it was best for me if I waited for the right time; my hands aren't really soft enough to steal it without getting caught. I looked at all the other bandits and studied their equipment, most of them were using projectile-based firearms of some kind, and others were seen carrying energy weapons. I overheard something about a kidnapping, I think, I tried to continue eavesdropping and went closer to the cell to which the guard just angrily whipped his weapon at the bars.

"Don't get any bright ideas."

I flinched back and continued to sit at my cell for almost a half an hour, thinking of what to do and praying for the best.

Eventually, I heard sounds of bandits running to the exit followed by an explosion coming from the outside, then heard a familiar yell from a certain Valkyrie.

"Ravioli, Ravioli, where did you keep our beloved Jauney?!"

The bandit guarding the cage was startled and raised his gun and was about to walk away. Before I could let any of that happen. I quickly looked around to see if the coast was clear, I saw that everyone had left the area to deal with the intruders. I grabbed the bandit's mouth through the bars and head his head at the cage until he is knocked out cold.

I grabbed the key from his belt and used it to open the lock when I got out of the cage, I took his submachine gun and looted his body for lien, ammo, dust and any valuables for good measure.  **[1]**

I went toward the room where my stuff was hidden. The room was an office with several lockers, file cabinets, and chests, as well as a flag with the bandit clan's emblem hanging in the wall and a single fan on the corner of the ceiling. I looked at every locker and chest to find my stuff until I eventually found them and continued to scavenge for supplies.

"Hey!" A voice called while I was looting one of the chests.

I quickly turned around and saw him reaching for his pistol. I threw the submachine gun at him, knocking him over as I grabbed my sword by its scabbard before storming towards him and then swung the pommel to his head, rendering him unconscious. I put my sword back at my belt and searched his body and took all of his money and ammunition.

The best thing that I took from him, however, was his pistol; it wasn't just a pistol—it was a laser pistol. While it doesn't look like much, laser weaponry is feared for a good reason. They're much more accurate and powerful than projectile weapons as they can deplete aura within a few shots while projectile weapons require an entire clip or two to accomplish that, depending on the ammo or gun type. They also lack recoil and hold much more ammo than projectile weapons, meaning I don't have to worry about reloading every now and then, I just needed to make sure it doesn't overheat after firing it too many times. I also have to be careful with its power cells—I've been hearing reports on how the overcharging of lasers cause them to explode, those are one of the few downsides of laser weapons. But despite its few flaws, overall, these types of weapons are effective enough that they are often degraded as 'coward guns' but only because they are afraid of people wise enough to use them, and besides, that only made the weapon more suiting for me. Makes me wonder why Huntsmen don't use more guns like this.

I left the room with my sword unsheathed on my right hand, and the laser pistol on the other.  **[2]** Two bandits came in and spotted me. I hastily shot them both, almost instantly disabling them. After seeing their bodies collapse, I took a moment to look at my newly-owned laser pistol and be impressed by how powerful it is. I am so keeping this, I thought. I guess my stupidity to get myself into crap like this has its perks.

I continued to find my way out of the bandit cave, subduing and looting every bandit I come across. Eventually one of the bandits managed to ambush me off-guard, knocking me to the ground. He was about to thrust his bayonet into me when he was suddenly shot by a few bullets and was knocked out by a kick, the person responsible was then revealed to be Ren.

"Jaune! There you are!"

"Ren! Why, am I glad to see you!" I said, standing up.

"What were you doing here?" he asked.

"Not important." I said, emptying the last bandit's pockets "Let's just focus into getting out of this mess."

He nodded and followed my lead. I gave him all of the pistol ammo I picked up, some of them are much more powerful than one Ren uses, making his dual SMGs more powerful and look less like peashooters mainly used for distraction. He looked puzzled when I handed them to him but chose not to question it.

We soon found Nora and Pyrrha fighting off a horde of bandits that surrounded them. The fight was in our team's favor, with bandits dropping like flies. Made worse for them when one of them thought it would be a good idea to electrify Nora with a shock rod, which went as well as you'd expect.

Nora's screamed as her body started sparking with power. Pyrrha jumped out of the way, knowing what would happen. The bandits remained bewildered until they were all knocked out by a shockwave caused by a single smash of Nora's hammer.

Nora went out of her way to finish off every single one of them as neat as you please; they were never given a chance to retreat or retaliate. We both watched with a mixture of astonishment and horror. "Ren. Remind me to never make her angry." I told him.

"Agh! Who's next?!" she said after putting the last bandit to sleep. Her semblance then wore off and she was back to her normal state. "Jaune!"

She bolted to give me a hug, it was tight especially with the armor I'm wearing, but I have gotten used to it! "You're okay! I mean, of course, you are. You're the fearless Jaune Arc! Nothing could ever get to you!"

Yeah, tell that to these guys when they captured me because I was too busy not being stung by wasps to think clearly.

She suddenly groaned and held her stomach. "Ugh. Sorry, still hung over from the saps."

"Jaune!" Pyrrha approached me. "Thank goodness you're okay. What were you thinking?! Miss Goodwitch told us not to wander off. Now you're here surrounded by… bandits! Do you have any idea how worried we were?!"

I held both of her shoulders. "Pyrrha. Like I said before, I can solve my own problems."

She sighed. "I guess all that matters is that you're fine. But still don't ever do that again! You have a lot to answer to Professor Goodwitch!"

Right, I almost forgot about that.

"Hey, I don't think we'd be in here if Cardin didn't release those rapier-wasps to me!"

That, and if I thought all of this through.

"Winchester…" she hissed. "Will he ever learn?"

"After this, he probably will," I remarked.

"I think they went this way!" An incoming voice said.

Judging by how many bandits we dealt with. This was likely the last batch. I think I needed to fully repay these bandits for holding me hostage and as gratitude for fine pistol and loot I got, besides, I could use a little more lien.

"So, wanna make the world a better place?" I asked my team.

They all hesitated but agreed anyway. If we knocked out most of a bandit camp, we might as well take care of the rest. Take it as a service to the community.

Six armed bandits came out. "Alright, human scum! You better say your pr—" they then saw all of their unconscious buddies and four barely scathed Huntsmen glaring at them.

"Uhh. Beautiful weather, huh?" One of the bandits said, all of them shuddering.

They were a bunch of bandits only armed with regular weaponry and we were a team of prodigies in one of the finest academies in Remnant with significant amounts of combat experience. Do the math.

That's not even mentioning that Pyrrha used her semblance to pull all of their weapons away from them.

We soon casually walked out of the cave. All bandits were dispatched and looted. I left an anonymous tip for the Valian authorities of the location of the bandit camp. My only concern was explaining this entire mess to Miss Goodwitch.

"So, how are we going to tell Miss Goodwitch that we ended up in a bandit camp?" Nora inquired.

"We don't. We just tell them we got lost and killed a few Grimm along the way." I answered.

"But what if the bandits wake up?"

"They'll be greeted by the authorities when they do. Besides, we took most of their supplies, they are basically broke by now."

"I don't know… but why do I get the feeling that they're not bandits—but something worse." Ren mused.

"You're not the only one. Their emblem looked oddly familiar—I think I heard about them before." Pyrrha concurred.

"Guys. Don't be silly. If they were worse than bandits, I'm sure at least one of us would be too dead to have this conversation." I pointed out. It's rather hard to believe that just we ended up beating something more severe and sinister than a bunch of forest bandits.

"But still…" Pyrrha sighed and shook her head. "Let's just get back to the others."

Good idea, I thought. I didn't want to think about it. It was a fun yet unpleasant experience. I was mostly alive thanks to Pyrrha and Nora dealing with most of the bandits. At least the loot made it all worthwhile, especially the laser pistol, I'm going to be using it a lot.

Also, I'm going to have a hard time passing Dust Studies, since I wasn't able to pass a single jar of sap.

**=o=**

  1. _Aside from his feats, consummate leadership and fighting ability, Jaune was known by his friends and allies for looting every unconscious/deceased hostile body he comes across, as well as scavenging the area for any valuables and have them sold if they lack any use. Thankfully, he only commits this act to criminals and corrupt officials, otherwise, he would do his best to restrain himself. He admits that video games inspired him to do this._
  2. _Despite being right-handed, Jaune exclusively wields one-handed firearms with only his left hand, even if his dominant hand is vacant. This is because he was trained to used such weapons while wielding a sword, making him ambidextrous to an extent._



* * *

The field trip ended with Cardin and company getting an extended detention. He should be at least thankful for that because if I told Miss Goodwitch that his stunt just caused me to accidentally run into a bandit camp, got me imprisoned and forced my team to wipe it clean just to break me out, he would have gotten suspended or worse. Team CRDL is definitely not going to bother me anymore, that's for sure, halready got the satisfaction of me getting chased by rapier-wasps, now he doesn't have a reason to mess with me for much longer. I'm pretty sure they're still afraid of me because I made them a laughing stock the other day, they just wouldn't admit it.

I went to Vale to sell some of the stuff I took from the bandit camp, the only ones I didn't sell was weapon add-ons and ammo that were compatible with the team's weapons, upgrade parts, medical supplies, dust in case we find ourselves in a situation where we might need it, everything else was fair play.

I ended up making a bank with the junk I sold. The people who bought them were rather suspicious of my possession of them, but were too afraid to ask and just bought them. I spent a quarter of the money I made on laser pistol ammo and a box of pizza for my team to celebrate our first month and surviving the latest incident.

After that, I decided to have some alone time on the rooftop where we train. The view from there is pretty beautiful during the night, especially when it illuminates with lights of the academy and the city lights of Vale in a distance, accompanied by the sound of peaceful silence.

Looking at the night sky and its shattered moon, I can't help but be reminded of the night where I wished to become a hero. Oh, how simple those times were. But that memory also reminded me of why I relinquished that wish. I quickly cleared my head as I did not want to relive that particular period in my life.

But I got to ask myself, was it beneficial for me to be here in Beacon? I found myself conflicted—I still don't want to be in here nor intend to be a Huntsman, but I also made genuine friends here and I cannot afford to let them and my family down. The problem is when this is all over and we're finally graduated, what was I suppose to do when I'm finally free from combat school? Leave the friends I made for the sake of my original plan? Or condemn myself into becoming a potential casualty in a world that cannot be saved? The most logical choice was to just live a regular life while keeping in touch with them, but they'll be disappointed that I will be no longer fighting with them and they'll eventually realize that the Jaune they knew, turned out to be some selfish liar. All I could do for now was lament on what I have gotten myself into.

I stayed there gazing at the scenery while I was updating this journal. I remained uninterrupted until I heard the roof open and saw Pyrrha came in.

"Oh hey, Pyrrha. What brings you here?"

"Hello again. I just want to check up on you."

"Just gazing, nothing much."

"So do you mind if I…"

"No. By all means." I said, tapping the side.

"Thanks." she sat down.

"Hey, Pyrrha. I'm sorry about what happened before. I really don't know what I was thinking at the time." I apologized. She really didn't deserve to be dragged into a mess like that and it was my fault that she got involved.

"It's okay. It wasn't something you couldn't handle. Just don't scare me like that!" she cried.

"I'll do my best. No promises, though." I replied.

It was quiet for a few seconds when Pyrrha spoke up. "Strange day, isn't it?"

"It won't be the last; we'll be here for four years and it's been a month," I said, especially that weirdness in my life has become increasingly common ever since I made a wish on that stupid star and it only has gotten worse since I decided to go to Podunk on that fateful day.

"I guess you could say that," she replied

We then both sat in silence, just staring at the scenery and the night sky, enjoying each other's company. But there was a burning sensation inside that I could not release, something that I have trouble comprehending.

"Jaune…"

"Yeah?" I asked, still eyeing the view.

"I just wanted to say that I…" she hesitated for a moment. "I…"

"What is it?" I turned to her in curiousity.

"I…" she then took a deep sigh before looking back at me. "Nothing. It's just that… since we're both here, I thought we could have a little spar."

I paused for a moment before agreeing with it. "Sure. Why not?" I nodded.

"Great!" she said.

We both started to stand and went to the middle of the rooftop. We both pulled our weapons as we stared at each other. I went with my sword and shield stance, for now, I did not use my pistol because it was too risky and would make too much noise. Gunfire is forbidden during nighttime for a reason.

"Okay, Pyrrha. You can start when—"

She abruptly charged and swung her xiphos. I was startled and blocked the swing just in time.

"Sorry! You told me not to give your opponent a chance to attack while abiding by the rules." she explained.

I was surprised but I was happy she was taking my advice. "Well, Miss Nikos. That's actually a good plan."

"I learned from the best." she chuckled.

I pushed back from her and caught my breath. We smiled at each other before continuing the duel.

I started to understand why they called her the Goddess of Victory. She was so fast and strong that I never felt such adrenaline in a duel since I sparred with Dad. I was only able to get the upper hand a few times while she was dominating me the entire match. It was no surprise that she ultimately won the match between partners.

I got knocked back for last time before Pyrrha sheathed her weapons and offered her hand.

"Good fight, Pyrrha." I said, returning the gesture.

"You're not bad yourself. You have actually been the most challenge I've ever fought in a long time."

"Wait, I have?" I raised my brow in disbelief.

"I don't expect anything less from you. You have proven yourself to be a great fighter after all. Keep it up." she complimented.

It was only necessary for survival though. It was the reason why I was still even breathing after everything I went through. Then again, my survival instincts is what got me here in the first place.

I became much more tired and drowsy after the fight. "Let's get back to the dorm. It's getting really late and I'm really tired after everything that happened." I yawned.

"I was thinking the same thing." she nodded.

We left the rooftop together and went to our dorm. After a sparring session in a long day, rest was the only thing I could think of.

* * *

_Editorial Note:_

_After Team JNPR's encounter with the White Fang outpost on Forever Falls, an anonymous terrorist of the Valian division recorded the aftermath of the incident. These documents were eventually recovered after the Atlesian military seized the White Fang's assets following their downfall. Through some bartering, I managed to get a hold of some of these documents for the sake of the archive._

The White Fang Reports: Forever Fall Aftermath.

The philosophy of the legendary Adam Taurus states that the lives of many faunus are worth more than a single human. Hence why the recent attack on the Forever Fall outpost was a huge blow for us, despite being a relatively minor asset located in a crimson-colored wilderness that only a few go to. While the revolution calls for the necessary sacrifice of faunus blood, the attack was not called for whatsoever.

The attack was significant, not only because lives of our fellow revolutionaries were lost and the supplies cached there were stolen, but also because it was not carried out by a hostile military operation, but a single lone human with unknown motives.  **[1]** There was only a vague description of his appearance that was provided before the outpost fell: blond, male, average build, around five to six feet tall, wore the colors of white and blue during the attack. Due to how common the perpetrator's physical appearance were, we are lead to believe he could be anyone fitting the description. The brave men and women of the Vale division of the White Fang were warned for any human who shows such attributes, as this mysterious perpetrator is a threat to our cause if he was to go as far as to cripple a part of our organization.

The event claimed the lives of fourteen of our members, most of whom lacked aura, thirty-two were injured and eventually arrested by the Vale Defense Force (VDF) during their arrival, twenty-three others have managed to escape apprehension but are now missing, hungry and defenseless at the Forever Fall forest, a forest lurking with Grimm. There was even a report that one of the survivors, a cat faunus, resorting to cannibalism to a comrade who happened to be a fish faunus,  **[2]**  prior to being found and arrested. Few of the other survivors have turned themselves to the authorities as a desperate attempt to be fed and sheltered despite their impoverished conditions.

When the Atlesian Military heard about the attack, they took over the operation from the VDF, specifically taking control of the assets seized and the prisoners captured. Since unlike the Atlesian Military, the VDF does not have an active campaign against the White Fang and agreed to hand over the operation.

Fortunately, the outpost was able to transmit a few valuable intel shortly before the attack. The scouts have spotted a group of Huntsman students in the premises; there were two notable individuals found within the group that the outpost planned to kidnap. The first being the SDC heiress—Weiss Schnee, a target for ransom. The second which caught the personal interest of Adam Taurus—Blake Belladonna, a deserter and former agent of our cause, who was still wearing that disgusting bow that hides her feline features.  **[3]** A repugnant display indicating shame within your faunus heritage.

Sadly, because the attack occurred minutes later after this information was acquired, they were not able to carry the plan of kidnapping the persons of interest. Nevertheless, our operators manage to pinpoint the girls' location to Beacon Academy. However, Adam Taurus instructed us to postpone any plans to kidnap the Schnee heiress and Miss Belladonna until said otherwise. For now, he wants us to prioritize on the main operation. Despite our losses, the fight against the fascist humans will press forward.

Though, we are not to forget the person who was responsible for essentially destroying and robbing one of our outposts, killing and injuring some of our comrades, and ruining our attempts to kidnap some valuable assets. There was some debate on who the perpetrator was. Some say that he was one of the Huntsmen accompanying the persons of interest, some speculate that he could be the same person who killed a known bandit lord in a small settlement as the person's descriptions match, others even went as far to think that he was death incarnate. Regardless, this person is a threat to our goals and if we were to succeed, he needs to be dispatched as soon as possible.

Seriously, who the fuck is this guy?

**=o=**

  1. _The White Fang either forgot to include the contributions of Jaune's teammates or was not able to. It's likely because Jaune was the only hostile they were able to designate during the incident._
  2. _Predator faunus have rare tendencies to become cannibalistic towards prey faunus. As a result, many of infighting in the faunus community stems from tensions between predator and prey faunus._
  3. _Strangely, it is indeed confirmed that Blake was still wearing her bow before even attending to Beacon, despite having no reason to, and the practice being frowned upon by faunus society, especially without the intent of infiltrating humans._



* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jaune's looting tendency was inspired by RPG protagonists, as well the Mass Effect fanfic 'Accidental Hero of the Galaxy', a fic that I mentioned on the first chapter as an example of Ciaphas Cain-inspired works. I just thought that typical video game kleptomania would fit this Jaune's pragmatic and somewhat roguish personality.


	5. In Her Shadow

_Editorial Note:_

_The following chapter takes place four months from the last entry, specifically near the end of the first semester._

_Before we begin, I would like to add another excerpt, this time it would be centering around Team RWBY's trip to Vale during the preparations for the Vytal Festival before complications between the team ensued. The event was relevant to the following chapter, so I felt that it was appropriate to begin this chapter with an excerpt to give the readers some context behind the following chapter's events._

_I chose Ruby's account to provide the excerpt, as it presents an unbiased and much more bearable description of the event. Since my old memoirs, while nostalgic, were rather uncomfortable to look through, as if reading about my younger self in Jaune's writings wasn't shameful enough. Meanwhile, Blake's own accounts were written in a questionable prose style that it was rather unreadable, fortunately for the readers, I chose not to include it—for now at least._

The Red Rose Diaries: Friday in Vale

Finally, examinations for the first semester are over! Hopefully, all of the days I spent studying pays off. I still have flashbacks of Weiss drilling us on our studies so she doesn't have to be embarrassed on her team's scores, ugghh! Anyway, to celebrate, we agreed to go on a trip to Vale once the exams were over.

People in Vale were already preparing for the Vytal Festival. There were balloons and streamers placed everywhere. A sign that says "Welcome to Vale!" was put up near the pier for all the visitors to see (The old guy who put it looked familiar, have I met him before?). Even the usually cold and grumpy Weiss was excited, which was kind of weird, but who can blame her? The Vytal Festival was the most exciting time of the year, next to Halloween (which is also my B-day!) and Xmas. There would be dances, parades, and the best of all, the tournaments! Oh, how I used to watch those a lot. Now I could finally participate in them. I can't wait! It's like a party where the kingdoms celebrate peace and harmony after years of fighting, which it kind of is.

Weiss took us to the docks for whatever reason. Made me wonder why someone like her would take us to a place that smells like fish. She said that she wanted to welcome the students coming from Vacuo but Blake pointed out that she wanted to spy on them so she could have the upper hand on the tournament.

That is when I found a Dust Shop in shambles, with the police trying to investigate it. The weird thing was the crooks robbed it didn't take the money. I think the Torchwick guy from a few months ago was behind it, he still was on the loose, after all. One of the officers said it could have been caused by a faunus group called 'The White Fang', a group which Weiss has nothing nice to say about, while Blake defended them, saying they were misguided.

Before things became a little more heated. Somebody called for help to stop a faunus. We went to see what all the fuss is about was. We saw a faunus with a monkey tail who was about our age run past us. We figured that he was one of the students who came from Vacuo, so we tried to follow him so that Weiss could go on her plan observe the competition, but we ended up bumping into someone that caused the faunus boy get away.

The person we bumped with was a strange but very nice girl named Penny. We apologized and tried to go back into looking for the faunus boy but Penny came to us back, probably because I called her a 'friend' a few seconds ago just to be nice, so we just went with it. She said that she is here to compete for the tournament, even though she doesn't look the part. Weiss asked her where the faunus boy went while calling him a 'filthy faunus',  **[1]**  Blake didn't like that and that's when their argument about the faunus and the White Fang continued.

We didn't felt like hanging out any longer, so we just went back to our dorm at Beacon, and even then, they kept fighting. Yang and I could only watch and listen.

**=o=**

  1. _In my defense, I only referred to him that because he was literally filthy and was a faunus, but I didn't mean that as an insult to his race. Outside the White Fang, I didn't have much of an opinion to the faunus in general. Regardless, I would like to apologize for my behavior back then. I admit that my choice of words was poor, as I was not exactly the most thoughtful person at the time. Growing up in a family that was constantly under threat by faunus extremists made me rather insensitive._



* * *

**Chapter 5**

**In Her Shadow**

* * *

 

> _"How many faunus lived and died,_
> 
> _In the Great Faunus Maaa-sacre?_
> 
> _Too many lived and not enough died,_
> 
> _In the Great Faunus Maaa-sacre!"_
> 
> **_-Banned Atlesian Military Chant._ **

 

Thank gods the examinations are done, they have been driving me insane for the past couple of weeks that if I see another problem on dust equations, I swear I would shoot the first person I see.

It was finally time for me to settle down after the prodigious amounts of studying. I decided to stay at my dorm to have a much needed R&R. Nora and Ren went out to Vale to have a 'totally platonic date' and watch city prepare for the Vytal Fiesta, while Pyrrha has to go for an interview for a Mistrali magazine, leaving me all alone in the dorm with nothing but my comics and video games, not that I'm complaining.

I finally had peace and quiet that I haven't felt for a long time. No interruptions, no training, no homework, no studying, no jackass bullies, no Grimm, no bandits, and no obnoxious noise, not from Nora and not from my sisters, just me and myself. That is until much later in the evening, sounds of arguing became more and more clamorous from next door. Of course, it had to be from Team RWBY, because there isn't any other team nearby that could generate the same commotion that these girls could make.

For the most part, I'm satisfied with my dorm, but if I were to renovate it, I would give it much thicker walls. It's no wonder why the school forbids playing loud music at night. These walls are so paper thin that you could hear your own neighbors snore. Since I used to live in a manor in the middle of the countryside, I never have a problem with noisy neighbors, I had noisy sisters though, but at least my room has more soundproof walls than the ones in here.

What disturbs me the most was that I heard Blake of all girls yelling. The other one was Weiss, but that wasn't surprising. Blake, on the other hand, wasn't the type of person to be open with her opinions, let alone raise her voice. If there was something that made Blake cry out, then something must be very wrong.

They have been going at it for hours and it was not likely going to end soon. It was then I decided that enough was enough and went to investigate what was going on. Considering that Team RWBY is a very close ally to mine, I must be aware of their issues, especially if we were to work well together.

I exited my dorm and went near to Team RWBY's dorm as I continue to eavesdrop on their conversation. I needed to understand the situation if I were to help.

"…It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!" Weiss yelled.

"Well, maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Blake cried I froze when I was about to knock.

What?

After that, the world just suddenly paused. I used this time to think, what did she mean by 'we'? What was the group that Weiss despises that Blake seems to be with? Is this why Blake was so always aloof? So many questions, most of them stemming from the lack of context I got.

"I…" was the last thing I heard from Blake before she abruptly bolted out of the room, knocking me over without a word or an apology. I glanced at her as she blurred away from the hallway, shocked at what just happened.

"Blake, wait! Come back!" Ruby dashed out of her dorm and saw me laying on the ground. "Jaune! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said, standing up. "What was that all about?"

"We had a falling out." she tried to answer. "It's a long story. Look, can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure? What do you need me to do?"

"Can you please follow her? I need to make sure she's alright." she requested.

I gave a puzzled look. "Why me? You're her teammate, why don't you follow her?"

"I don't think she'd listen to us after what happened. I'm sure she'll be avoiding us." she explained. "Look, just keep an eye on her. Talk to her if you know she'll listen."

She had made a point. I took some time to think about. I looked her worried silver eyes and to the other two girls. Weiss just stood there, staring at the window, while Yang was sitting on a desk chair, looking down knowing what to do that her partner just had a breakdown and ran away.

"Please, Jaune. I trust you." Ruby begged in a sorrowful tone, usual for a cheerful girl like her.

I bit my lip before deciding to take her word since there wasn't any harm to it. "Fine. I'll look for her. I can't bear to see your team broken."

"Thanks, Jaune. I knew I could always count on you."

I left the residence hall and went to the courtyard, it was the only logical place Blake would run away to since the other areas were closed during the night.

I found her gazing at the statue on the middle of the courtyard. There was no one around but me and her. I hid back at one of the lampposts and watched her for a bit.

She slowly started to undo her bow, revealing the cat ears she has been hiding all along within these months.

Somehow I wasn't surprised but rather disappointed with that. Was that really what this is all about? She was a faunus, so what? They're just humans with some animal features, Why are people still making a big deal about that? If people don't stop fighting over something as trivial as someone's race and start to focus on the real problems such as the Grimm, then no wonder why Remnant is doomed.

I didn't know what to do next. She kept standing there, wiping her tears. I thought about going back to Ruby and tell her what I just saw, but I don't think I could do that without Blake's consent. So I just stepped in and approached her to see what happens.

"Hey…"

Blake turned around with her eyes widened. Tears were running down her face.

"So… that's why your bow was a little big."

She was noticeably anxious but shorty calmed down when my tone and expression makes it clear that I wasn't looking for a fight. I suppose that I don't need to tell her that I'm not racist because I whack off to faunus porn, hehe. In seriousness, there wasn't a good reason for me to be racist; I think bigotry is a pointless waste of time.

"Now you know." she sighed, wiping the trail of tears off her face. "You're going to tell the others aren't you?"

"Not if it makes you uncomfortable," I assured. It wasn't my intent to further make this more complicated.

"I'm sorry for hiding this to you since the beginning. I was afraid that no one will like me for what I am."

"Blake, you had no reason to hide who you truly are. I can't exactly hate you for simply having cat ears. This is a school that contains all facets of life." I soothed. I know it sounded hypocritical of me when I spent these past months masquerading as a lovable idiot and partially succeeding, but at least I wasn't making race an issue.

"And what about people like Cardin?" she questioned.

"People like Cardin aren't liked very much. You saw how Nora tried to stand up for Velvet, saying we couldn't just sit and watch." I pointed out.

"Even so, there are still people out there who will not accept for who you are and will look down on you for it." she raised her voice.

That is when I started to lose my patience with her. People will always look for reasons to hate you, no matter how small or irrational it may sound; race, being one of them. "So you're just going to keep hiding what you are?"

"Yes! Maybe! I don't know!" she cried. "Look, this is much more complicated than what you think it is. I really don't know how to say it to you."

"Blake, just tell me what's wrong. We could figure this out."

"I don't know. I still couldn't show my face to my team after what happened back at the dorm." she looked down. "They sent you, did they?"

"Yes. They did." I nodded hesitantly. It was pretty obvious, there wasn't any point to lying about it.

"So, mind if I ask you something?" she questioned.

"I'm all ears."

She hesitated for a moment before spitting it out. "Can tell them that you couldn't find me? I'm going to leave Beacon for a while. Please don't tell anyone what you just saw."

I widened my eyes at her request. "Leave? But—"

"I'll explain everything to you soon. Right now, I need to think about this. I promise I'll come back."

I pondered on her word. I didn't know if I should let her go when Ruby is worried sick about her. On the other hand, she did tell me to just make sure she was okay, she didn't exactly expect me to bring her back.

"Please…"

I looked at her in her amber eyes and saw myself in her. She seems to trust me, I doubt that she'll lie to me. "If that's what you want."

"Thanks," Blake said before disappearing. After that, she was gone with the wind, nowhere to be found.

I felt like I just betrayed Ruby now that I let Blake loose but I felt like it was best for her team. If their problems with each other are really that bad, then they really do need some space from each other and think about it. Besides, if Blake didn't trust me, she would have run away the moment she saw me.

I walked back to the dorms and knocked on Team RWBY's dorm. The door opened and I saw Ruby.

"So how was it?"

"Couldn't find her. I thought I saw her once, turned out to be a shadow clone. Sneaky cat." I lied.

Her eyes widened. I just realized that I slipped an implication that I knew about her faunus heritage.

"Was it something I said?"

"Nothing. I'm sorry for bugging you into this. It's just that I'm worried about her." she whimpered.

"She'll be fine, she did get to Beacon after all. I'm sure she could handle herself out there."

"You're right." she said. "Well, thanks anyway. I'm sorry if we bothered you."

"No problem." I nodded. "I'm just glad to help."

I went back to my dorm. For that night, all I could do was worry for Team RWBY, especially Blake.

* * *

After the night when Blake went to the stray, I tried going back into enjoying my last weekend here in Beacon before semestral break officially begins on Monday. Team RWBY waited for the whole day for Blake to come back anytime soon but sadly, she never came.

A day after that, it was Sunday. Nora, Ren and I went to Vale to hang-out for a few hours. Pyrrha said she was needed somewhere else and unfortunately couldn't come.

We were at the arcade. Ren and I were both playing a light gun game. We've managed to complete it while carrying the guns with only one of our hands. We received substantial amounts of tickets after beating it, which was added by the high scores we made thanks to our shooting accuracy. Ren would have completed the game solo using both of the player guns, but there were only two spots, so he had to use only one gun since I also intend to play the game as well to exercise my left arm that I use for shooting. Come to think of it, it would have been appropriate to wear suits when playing it like that, we would have looked liked hitmen from a crime drama.

Nora meanwhile spent nearly all of her money buying tokens to eventually win a prize from the dreaded claw machine.

"Grr. Cursed machine! How dare you not let me win that cute widdle teddy bear wanting to leave this glass box you imprison him in?!" Nora screamed after another failed attempt.

Suffice to say, she would have spent a lot less if she just simply buy one. At least she's restraining enough not to break the machine and get us banned; her raw strength was enough to shatter the machine's glasses. I was already skeptical into getting her to play the strength test, something which she could undoubtedly break without even trying. But she couldn't bother to play that because she has been stuck on the claw machine since we arrived. Can't say I blame her though, I haven't won a single prize in my entire life from a claw machine myself, these things are designed to be based more on luck rather than skill to the point that some people think it's made for scamming.

"Token. You are my last hope. Don't fail me now." Nora said, holding to her last token before inserting it to the machine.

Nora carefully controlled the crane above one of the teddy bear's position. I can see her forehead sweating. She stuck her tongue out for maximum concentration, her turquoise eyes focused and calculating, doing her best to determine the precise position. The claw continues to hover above the target prize, stopping after Nora decided that it was time to grab it. She pressed the button, making the claw descend towards its designated mark.

Nora shivered as she watched the claw go toward the stuffed toy. The claw's closed, only managing to barely grab one of the teddy bear's hind legs. Nora quivered as the claw ascends back. Alas, the claw dropped the bear when it almost reached its destination, making it fall back towards its fellow prizes, condemned to stay inside a children's claw machine for more years to come, maybe even forever.

Okay, what the heck did I just wrote?

"NOOOOOO~!" Nora sent a scream, loud enough to be heard by all of Vale, the arcade goers all stared at us before going back to their respective activities after a couple of seconds.

Nora went to Ren who gave her a comforting hug. I felt genuine pity for her; these claw machines simply cannot be won.

"Why? Why~?! Why the world must be so cruel?" Nora sobbed.

"There, there. Nora. How about I get you one with the tickets we've won."

"Wait. Really? You would do that for me?"

"You've been my best friend for half my life, Nora. Of course, I'll do that for you."

We went to the prize counter. Ren gave out our tickets and used it to redeem a teddy-bear that is twice as big as the one Nora was trying to get.

"Here you go," Ren said as he was handing over the stuffed bear.

Nora was a loss for words. As her childhood friend, she already knows that he'll be there for her, but even then, she was still surprised to see her friend generously give her a toy that she was trying to win.

She hugged the bear before hugging Ren once again. "Oh, thank you, Ren! I am so glad to have a good friend like you!"

I smiled at the sight. Despite their obvious differences, it was nice to know that these two will always be at each other's side no matter the circumstance. If only Team RWBY treated each other like that the same way...

I felt my scroll vibrate. I took it out and saw a text message from Blake.

 

 

 

 

> 'It's time I explain everything to you. Meet me at the balcony on the second floor of the Café Noire in Downtown. Go alone, turn your tracker off and make sure you aren't being followed.
> 
> -B.'

I put down my scroll and puffed. "Look, I know this is short notice, but I have to go somewhere. You two have fun." I said before I part ways with the dynamic duo.

"Oh, okay. Stay safe, Jaune!" Nora said, holding her bear.

I went outside, I was already at Downtown so all I needed to do was go to Café Noire.

* * *

The café was located only a few blocks away from the arcade. It was a short walk. I went to the balcony at the second floor as Blake instructed. I saw her sitting on a table, wearing her bow again. She was with another boy who annoyingly almost has the same color scheme as mine, only missing something black on his top, he also was a monkey faunus,  **[1]**  and carried his cup with his tail.

I assumed that Blake's teammates would get the same message and also be present, but they were nowhere to be found. I find it weird how Blake would trust me over her teammates. We really still haven't talked that much outside of that chance encounter at the library during the first week, even then our conversation during that day was rather brief. It's probably because I acted too nice that she ended up trusting me. Really, it's partially my fault that her teammates have been looking for her since Friday night.

"Oh good, you're finally here," Blake said.

"So, he's the guy?" the boy asked her.

"Yes. Sun, this is Jaune. Jaune, I'd like you to meet Sun."

"Nice to meet you. Sun Wukong. Haven Academy." he offered his hand.

"Jaune Arc. Beacon, the same school as hers. Nice to meet you too." I returned the gesture and took a seat.

"Haven? That's an academy in Mistral. Aren't you from Vacuo?" Blake questioned him.

"Actually, yeah I am from Vacuo, but I study at Haven. I just went back there immediately after the break to meet up with my family before taking the first ship to Vale."

"Then why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"You never asked," Sun shrugged.

Blake rolled her eyes and took a sip of tea before turning to me. "Here, get yourself something to drink." she gave me a menu.

"So does this place have any tanna?" I asked while reading through the menu.

"What's tanna?" Blake asked.

I kept reading the menu and saw that wasn't any tanna. "Nevermind," I replied, slightly disappointed. I really miss the taste after not drinking since I got to Beacon. "So where are your teammates, Blake? Whatever you're about to explain, I think they deserve to hear it."

"I think they already knew, which is why I couldn't bear to show my face to them. But I did promise you that I will explain everything."

Fair enough. I just wanted to know what was going on. "Well, by all means, shoot."

She took a deep breath. "Alright, here it goes… Jaune. Sun. Are you familiar with the White Fang?"

"Can't say I have," I answered although the name does ring a bell. I could recall hearing the name a few times, I just don't know when.

"Of course! I don't think there's a faunus on the planet who hasn't heard of them." Sun spoke up. "Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks, if you ask me!"

Blake took another sip of her tea. "I was once a member of the White Fang."

I looked at her with mild surprise. Sun meanwhile coughed that he almost choked on his drink that he dropped it. "Wait a minute,  _you_  were a member of the White Fang?!"

"That's right. I was a member for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it."

I was slightly alarmed by her remark. If Sun said was true, that this 'White Fang' were a bunch of violent thugs, then I should be careful around Blake. I did tell myself to calm down, because if Blake was the criminal she used to be, then she would have stirred some trouble a long time ago. Then again, her being aloof could mean that she was up to something.

"Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between humans and the faunus. Of course, despite being promised equality, the faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people—and I was there, I was at the front of every rally, I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference, but I was just a youthful optimist."

A youthful optimist… I know how that one felt.

She continued. "Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking. Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used faunus labor, and the worst part was—it was working. We were being treated as equals, but not out of respect... out of fear."

She finishes her cup. "So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress."

That was… eye-opening. Thankfully, it has disproven my suspicions that Blake was still associated with that group. Still, I'm disturbed that racial divisions are still intact. Prejudices die hard, but I guess you can partly blame the White Fang for that.

"So here I am, a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow." she looks up and wiggled her bow.

"So. Have you told your friends any of this?" Sun inquired.

"I think you should. White Fang or not, that's not the first thing that would come to their mind when they hear your name. No, no. They'll think of their teammate, Blake, that shy girl who wears a big bow and likes to read. Whatever you were before, it's now in the past. Let it go."

"I wish it was that simple." she sighed. "I don't know, Jaune. Especially not with Weiss. She has a vendetta against the White Fang, since the SDC has been one of their major targets. I don't think she'll forgive me for associating with a group that has been sabotaging her family's company for a while." Blake said.

Well, crap. That explains it a bit.

"Wait, so you're telling me that your teammates with a Schnee? Man, talk about some bad blood." Sun commented.

"This whole thing started when we were strolling together in the city and saw a dust shop in ruins. The police said that the White Fang was one of the possible perpetrators, and Weiss was inclined to agree. I was foolish enough to defend their actions and call them misguided, that was when we started to argue. Eventually, it became heated enough that I slipped into associating myself with the faunus, I ran away and the rest is history."

"Wow," Sun remarked.

"So, do you still think that this is all just a simple dispute?" Blake questioned me.

Although she did make the situation clear, it raised more questions that I had to ask. "Look, I see what you're going through. But couldn't you just tell them that you don't want to do anything with the White Fang anymore? You already saw that they do more harm than good that you left. So why did you even bother defending them?!" I chastised her. "You didn't have to necessarily make this more complicated."

"Even if the White Fang took their action too far, it does not change the fact that Weiss made discriminatory remarks on the faunus, people like her are why some of them join the White Fang!" she raised her voice, gripping her empty cup.

"But does that make them any better? You said that faunus were being treated as equals out of fear, right? I may an idiot sometimes, but I know that's not equality, Blake, because they never properly promoted it in the first place. Do you really think that humanity would take kindly to extremism? No, they instead gave them a good reason to fear the faunus when bigotry was then simply caused by ignorance. If their goal was to increase tensions between humans and faunus instead of advocating equality, then they did it, congrats to them." I snapped. "So, are you proud of what they have accomplished so far?"

I realized that I have acted too much out of character but I was not in the mood on playing dumb and pretending that this was all okay, since I knew that nothing good will happen if I just let this stand. Admittedly, I'm not sure if I know what I'm talking about. For all I know, I could be making stuff up. What I just said were based on her accounts and basic understanding on how the White Fang's revolts was a failed attempt on promoting harmony between the races and took extreme methods instead.

At least the café's second floor and exterior are empty, I don't like people eavesdropping a rather personal conversation.

Blake paused but she wasn't giving up just yet. "You may not see it much these days, but the faunus are suffering a lot more than you think. Some of them were never given a choice but to join the White Fang because they're their only hope! What do think they were supposed to do?"

"By proving them wrong!" I answered. She was taken aback by that response. "My mom told me that success is the best revenge, and I believe she's right. I've met faunus that prospered despite everything that they have to go through. They flourished so much that faunus wasn't the first thing that comes to mind. And if anyone tried discriminating them because of what they are, then they are ridiculed for their bigotry. So instead of throwing violent, collective tantrums and giving humans a reason to hate you, why not prove that you're more than just a bunch of animals? I know it's not easy and it's a long road ahead, but I do know that it's worth it." I took a moment to breathe. "Not everyone wants to put the faunus down, Blake, many of us are doing our best to give you a chance. So why make things worse for us both?" I didn't want to sound preachy or political, but I had to convince Blake to dispel her own doubts and get back to her team.

She froze, she looked down her cup and pondered on what I just said.

"I can't help but agree with him. He's made a good point." Sun said after silently listening to us for a while. Good to know that somebody was seeing sense in all this.

Blake sighed. "You're right. I guess the White Fang that I knew and believed in is gone. I was a fool to think so otherwise." she sheepishly admitted.

You know, stuff like this is the reason people tend to shy away from controversial politics. This wasn't some heroic rebels versus evil authority bullshit the entertainment industry tend to romanticize—this was real life, where each side has their reasons. I don't know about you, but I do know that even if the end justifies the means, people will forget about your 'noble causes' if you go too far, and yet they still have the gall to act all high and mighty.

"There's still a chance to set things right, Blake. And by choosing to become a Huntress, you already are trying to make a difference."

She looked at her cup for a moment before brightening up. "I'll take your word for it then."

"Glad that's settled." I beamed.

"So what's the plan now?" Sun asked.

"While there's no denying that the White Fang has been extreme a lot lately, I still don't believe they are behind these robberies. They've never needed that much dust before."

"But what if they did?" Sun questioned. "I mean—the only way to prove that they didn't do it, is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there! Right?"

"The only thing is, I've no idea where that would be."

"Well, while I was on the ship, I heard some guys talking about offloading a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas."

"How huge?" Blake inquired with interest.

"Huge. Big Schnee Company freighter."

"You're sure?"

"Well, you said that the White Fang hated the SDC's guts. So, if they do need that much of dust, then what is the better way than to steal from the company they despise so much?" Sun pointed out. "In short, I am very sure."

"Then we're going there now," Blake concluded. "Jaune, are you coming with us? We could use an extra hand. We're going to need your help should things go wrong."

Oh boy, I feared that it would come to this. But declining would only prove that I was a coward, and I couldn't have that, and someone from the school had to keep an eye on Blake. "Alright, but in one condition, after you're done. You'll go back to Beacon, and you'll apologize to your team and talk it out. Deal?"

"Can't really argue with that. Deal." Blake complied. She looked at the sky and saw that it was getting dark. "Best we get going, the White Fang could attack at any time. We need to be there before they do."

We stood up and left the café. I sent a message to my team saying that I'll come home late. And that's assuming that if I even get out of this alive.

"Hey Jaune, I can't help but notice that you're kind of familiar, I think I've heard about you before," Sun asked as we were making our way to the docks.

Are people still hanging on to that? I know El Segadore was a big deal on Vacuo, but I thought we have reached the point where the person responsible for that has faded to obscurity. "I have no idea what you're talking about…"

He kept staring at me before he shook his head and carried on "Eh, I'm probably going crazy. Sorry to bother you."

Phew, that was close. Somebody reminding me of that shameful event was the last thing I needed.

Hopefully, it won't get worse from here. I just want to help out a friend to keep myself on Team RWBY's good side, now I'm getting involved in racial politics and low-key espionage. Hooray.

**=o=**

  1. _He also happened to be the same faunus we tried to chase from the excerpt above._



* * *

They say that 'curiosity kills the cat.' I spent the entire thing worrying that it might become literal, even if they might have nine lives. Considering that we were about to face a group that are essentially terrorists. I fetched my weapons and hoped for the best while preparing for the worse.

I've seen Blake fight more than enough to know how to have her use her skills to our advantage. The problem is that her fighting style relies on stealth and surprise attacks because there's only so much you could do when your weapon is a katana **[1]** -slash-simple pistol with a cable attached to it and the weapon's sheath. I don't know much about Sun. When I asked on how he fights, he answered that he uses a bow-staff that can change into two nun-chucks that also shoots bullets. His semblance has him summon clones of himself, but unlike Blake's clones, they could be touched. Of course, like most other useful semblance, it takes up a lot of his aura, especially if he overuses it in one sitting. This leads me to assume that his role was suited for dealing with multiple opponents at once. All of these was in case things go wrong; our objective was to investigate dust robberies and see if the White Fang was truly responsible or not. Nobody said that we had to engage with angry faunus terrorists.

We've been at the roof on one of the warehouses, staking out the docks for hours starting at dusk and it was painfully uneventful. We could have fallen asleep once the White Fang arrives. At least Sun bought some cards for us to play.

Sun eventually got bored and decided to head out, saying he would come back. By this time, the freighter carrying the SDC containers arrived and was offloaded. After that, the dock's closed and the everyone working there went home, leaving the place empty, that suspiciously there were even no guards to be found.

"That's really their targets, is it?" I questioned.

"It's definitely something they would take," Blake remarked.

"Strange. You'd expect a huge corporation to have their stuff guarded especially if they're constantly attacked by a certain group."

"Now that you've mentioned it, something's feels off." she said. "Anyway, your tracker is still off right?"

"Yes, it's still off," I answered. That didn't mean I can't turn it back on when things get out of hand.

Blake and I stared at the containers for an amount of time. Needless to say, it was dull watch a bunch of metal boxes stand still and waiting for something to happen. Out of boredom, I ended up putting my gaze into admiring Blake's pretty backsides as it illuminates in the moonlight; this encouraged me to stay for another while.

I quickly stopped and turned back to overlooking the docks after hearing Sun returned with some green apples him.

"Did I miss anything?"

"Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there." Blake said.

"I stole us some food!" Sun said, showing some of the apples he bought.

"Uhh, thanks?" I complimented as I take one of them and took a bite. It was strange that I accepted generosity on a stolen good. But then again, considering my tendency to scavenge, I wasn't any better myself, but at least I stole from those who I thought deserved it and was inconspicuous enough to keep a clean record.

"Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?" Blake commented, and this was coming from someone who used to work with the same terrorist group we were currently investigating.  **[2]**

"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" Sun responded, earning her glare. "Okay, too soon!"

He went back into watching the docks while both quietly munch our apples. Few minutes in and there was still no White Fang drones to be found.

"Hey, Jaune," Sun called.

"Yeah?"

"Can I whisper you something?" Sun gestured me closer. I leaned near him for what he had to say. "Are you two dating?"

I was baffled by the question. While Blake was attractive by her own right, I don't see her anything like that. "What? No! What gave you the idea?"

"I just thought I'd ask." he sheepishly defended.

"Quiet, you two! I think they're coming." Blake told us, pointing us to a Bullhead coming to the docks with its searchlights on. It descended near the containers as we kept our heads low.

When the Bullhead's ramp opened, a group of people in unfortunately familiar apparel emerged from the aircraft. They were wearing the same black and white uniform, and the same visors, and carried the very same emblem on their back of their vests as the bandits I ran into a few months back at Forever Fall. I wished my mind was playing tricks on me—but it wasn't. I realized that the White Fang was indeed the group I encountered that day. Ren was right when he said what we fought were more than just bandits, and I never believe him, because I was too afraid to think so. Wonderful, this means that I ended up gaining the notoriety of a godsdamn terrorist organization hellbent on making humanity pay, with one of their ex-members being a member of my sister team. They are definitely going to murder me when they find out that I was the one that subdued, looted and reported one of their bases.

"Oh no." Blake murmured.

"Gods, it's really them," I murmured to myself, still in disbelief that I crossed paths with them before. Although I was quiet, it didn't stop Sun from hearing it.

"You've seen them before?" he asked, with Blake turning her head at me with suspicion.

"Saw them in the news." I quickly lied without stammering, which seems to have convinced them.

"Deep down, I knew. I just didn't want to be right." Blake whimpered.

I was about to suggest to leave and maybe call the police since we got what we came here for and there wasn't need for anything to complicate things further.

"Hey! What's the hold-up?!" A voice said, gaining Blake's attention. An orange-haired man with a bowler hat and cane, wearing a white coat came out of the Bullhead. What was off about him is that he doesn't seem to have visible faunus features. Granted, the faunus features of the other members aren't visible too, given that they wore uniforms that almost cover their whole body. I assumed that this one has his hidden beneath his hat, that is until he makes a statement that immediately debunked that.

"We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

"This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a human. Especially not one like that." Blake stated.

"This is stupid! Why the hell did they put you in charge?! I didn't sign up to get pushed around by another lowly humie like you!" One defiant member stood his ground.

Seems to me that they would, they just don't look happy when doing so.

"Disobedience, huh? That's a mistake." he replied before butting his cane on the member's stomach, making him fall to the ground. The others just stood back even if they were noticeably tempted to aim their guns at him. "You can go cry to Adam all you want, but as long we agreed to collaborate, I don't think any of you tools can do jack shit about it! Now, are we really doing this or what?"

"Adam? Collaborate? What's going on here?" Blake questioned as she stood up, drew her weapon and leaped from the warehouse.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Sun was surprised by Blake's sudden decision to storm out.

"Blake, wait!" I said. We were not supposed to confront anyone. So much for being discreet. I pulled my scroll and turned on my tracker just in case. "Don't move. Let her take care of this for now." I told Sun

"Well, do you have some sort of plan or what?!"

"I wish I had, but I'll work something out!" I said, he could only agree at the moment.

Blake snuck behind one of the containers and peaked to get a view on the bowler hat guy yelling at a stooge who was holding some kind of rope.

"No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!" he said before Blake came out and put her blade on his throat "What the—?! Oh, for fu—"

"Nobody move!" Blake warned as White Fang thugs surround her with their weapons drawn.

"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady." the bowler hat guy said.

"Blake Belladonna? Is that you?" One of the terrorists recognized her, causing her to feel a bit uneasy but remained firm nonetheless.

"Blake Belladonna?" Mr. Bowler Hat laughed. "So you're the kitten chick that Adam won't shut up about. Guess he wasn't screwing around when he said that you wear such a ridiculous bow."

"Shut up!" Blake snarled, removing her bow and exposing her cat ears. "Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?!"

"Why should we answer you, traitor?!" One of them retorted.

"Oh, you really have no idea what's happening, do you?" the bowler hat guy commented.

"Would you care to explain then?" Blake interrogated.

"Well, your old friends and I are going in on a joint business venture together!" he answered.

"Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation"

Sun and I felt the wind blow against us and saw two more Bullheads fly past us and hovered above them.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation..." he said shortly before launching a large explosion at Blake's feet, causing an explosion large enough to be seen outside the docks visible around nearby parts.

Oh dammit, I hope these terrorists have some goods worth taking because I'm not happy that I have to go through this nonsense.

**=o=**

  1. _A common mistake that even Ruby, a weapons enthusiast, is guilty of. Blake's weapon is actually called a ninjatō, which resembles katanas, only lighter and shorter, making them much more suitable for stealth._
  2. _And partaking in many sabotages against the Schnee Dust Compa_ n _y™ no less. Though, it should be noted that I had Blake pardoned for her crimes against the company, shortly after I took over the position as CEO._



* * *

_Editorial Note:_

_For the readers' convenience, I decided to add an excerpt here, which follows Ruby and Penny's search for Blake, before and after the incident of the docks occured, just so readers won't have the same confusion as Jaune on their eventual involvement._

The Red Rose Diaries: The Search for Blake 

It's been a whole day since Blake disappeared and she hasn't come back yet. We decided to go to Vale and look for her because she might never come back and I don't want team RWBY to be broken before this semester ends. It's going to be hard because Vale is rather a big city, and we couldn't track her down because her tracker was off.

We tried visiting the bookstore because it was one of the places she likes to go when visiting Vale. Sadly, the owner, Tukson, said that she hasn't visited lately, and the sushi restaurant, which was also one of her favorite places, said the same. Not giving up, we continued to look for her. She can't just abandon us while we're about to finish the first semester. I'm positive that she'll come back to us, I just don't know how or when.

Weiss suggested we go tell the police, which sounded good, but then you realize that Weiss still don't trust Blake yet and could have her arrested because she could really be from the White Fang.

We met Penny again. When we told her we were looking for Blake, Penny said that she recognized her and that she was a faunus girl, which really proved that she was hiding something for us. There was always something fishy with Blake, but it turns out she's just a faunus, which isn't actually much of a big deal if you ask me. Everyone was welcome to Beacon and become our friend. Weiss just needs to stop being mean to her because of that.

Anyway, Weiss and Yang suddenly ditched me and I was left with Penny. I told her everything that happened. Penny said she didn't have a lot of friends, but if she did, she wants them to talk to her about things.

Same thing I also want…

I continued to look for Blake as we continued to talk more about things. For once, we managed to get some good news. When Penny and I went to Café Noire, the owner said that she had seen her and that if that's really her, then she arrived hours ago and was chatting with two blond boys. I don't know who are the blond boys she was referring to, Jaune maybe? I tried to call him but he wouldn't return the call, so I called his teammates. Nora said that Jaune went to do something they don't know because he never told them and that his tracker was off, which probably proved that he's with Blake. But why does he need to turn off his tracker? Maybe Blake told him to, I dunno. But this tells me that he is with her; the only thing we needed to do was find them.

Since they were last seen in the café, they can't be that far. It was getting dark, but we haven't given up on searching just yet.

Suddenly, there we saw an explosion coming from the docks. Whether it's her or not we couldn't just stay there and do nothing. Someone might need help. So Penny and I decided to head there.

* * *

Mr. Bowler Hat continues to shoot missiles at Blake, who continues to dodge every single one. The recently arrived Bullheads opened revealing more White Fang terrorists. Meanwhile, I was trying to come up with a plan on how to deal with this.

"Okay, you go handle the White Fang goons while Blake keeps the human in the bowler hat busy. I'll stay back and provide supporting fire on enemies you can't reach. Try to find a way to get rid of those choppers. I'll try to shoot the pilots if I can. I suggest taking some dust from the containers and use them to create explosions for the Bullhead. It shouldn't hurt spending some of the dust we are trying to protect. Did you get all of that?" I glanced at my side, only to see that Sun wasn't there. "Sun?"

"Leave her alone!" Sun said, who was already at the ground facing Mr. Bowler Hat.

Oh for the love of all things decent. Was there someone here who would not ruin our chances of getting out of this alive?!

"Hey, I think that's him! Let's get 'em, boys!" One of the members on the Bullhead said. I put my head back up, puzzled at that statement, as they all jumped off and surrounded Sun. They attacked all at once, barely giving him a chance to fight back. I watched in horror as Sun lie on the ground, getting ganged up by a bunch of terrorists who apparently has some vendetta against him for some reason.

"You're not the brightest banana in the bunch, are you, kid?" mocked the bowler hat guy.

I had to do something otherwise I won't be able to peacefully sleep at night knowing I just left them to suffer. So I took the stairs down and hid behind one of the crates as I pulled my sword and laser-pistol.

I blasted off one of the White Fang goons with my laser-pistol, alerting them and diverting their attention to me.

"Wait a minute, this isn't a human!" A terrorist said after they stopped beating up Sun and saw his monkey tail.

Sun quickly recovered and sweeps the legs of all the hostiles around him before standing up and pulling out his bow-staff. "You think?"

"I couldn't see anything in this mask!" One member retorted.

"Another pet!  **[1]**  Get rid of him—and the humie too!" Another member yelled, rallying the others.

"Hey, don't call us that!" Sun said as he attacks the White Fang lackeys around him.

I went back to shooting down the ones trying to get to me. Not one was able to stand close save for one who tried to stab me in the back, which I deflected with my sword just right in time.

"Hey, aren't you the guy that—?" he tried to inquire when I kneed his nuts, before slashing him out.

"We found him!" Another set of White Fang was storming toward me. Oh boy, don't tell me they recognize me and remembered what happened at Forever Fall. Did I just make it to their hit-list? Was that why they started to beat up Sun because they thought he was me and we wore almost the same colors?

Regardless, there was no turning back from this. I holstered my laser-pistol and raised my shield, blocking the gunshots from the incoming terrorists. I thrusted myself toward them and slammed my shield at the first terrorist. I spun my sword around, hitting all the terrorists nearby. I proceeded to them slash away then collapsed my shield back into a scabbard and pointed my laser-pistol to the last two terrorists standing.

"He's mine!" Blake interjected. I glanced at her to see her clashing with Mr. Bowler Hat. Despite her agility, he continues to block her every attack and even manages to hit her until he knocked her out. Sun comes in and changed his bow-staff into two nunchucks. The two traded off some blows as Sun swings his weapons while firing them, causing bullets to fly around. Blake suddenly returned and slashed him back.

He was lying on the ground when he looked up and shot a rope carrying a container above Sun and Blake. Blake flips back behind it while leaped forward to the ground before meeting the barrel of bowler hat guy's cane.

I quickly fired at his hand, causing it to deflect and shoot at the side. He angrily glanced at me and shot a missile, which I managed to it block off with my shield at the last second. I put my shield down to see him lunge at me. I found myself now clashing with Mr. Bowler Hat. I proceeded to deflect all of his attacks as he does the same with mine. This went on for half a minute.

"Hey guys, Could we just all attack at the same time?!" I yelled at my two faunus companions.

"We're kinda busy here!" Sun responded while he and Blake are dealing with another wave of White Fang soldiers. Jeez, how many terrorists did they bought to carry some containers?

A flurry of missiles came toward me as I blocked every single one, albeit getting knocked back a little. I pulled down my shield and began returning fire with my laser-pistol while shooting some of the goons attacking Sun and Blake.

He was hit with one of the blasts and staggered back. I ran back to him and swung my sword, only to be blocked by his cane. "You kids are really getting on my nerves!" he yelled as he tried to push me back. "I appreciate the challenge and all, but would you learn not to stick your noses on where it doesn't belong?!"

"Hey!" A familiar voice called. I saw Ruby standing a top of the warehouse with her scythe on her hand.

"Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your be—oof!" he tried to taunt her when I seized the opportunity and whipped his face with my laser-pistol while he was in the middle of it and kicked him to the ground. I aimed my gun at him with my finger near the trigger. "You know, that wasn't very nice of you."

Ruby leaped off the building and landed next to us, "Give it up, Torchwick!" she pointed her sniper rifle at him. "We got you now!"

"Seriously, you again? What the hell do you want from me this time?" Mr. Bowler Hat or Torchwick—according to Ruby—snarled.

I raised my brow at the familiarity between the two. "You two know each other?"

"It's kind of a funny story."  **[2]**  Ruby said.

"Look, as much as I would love to stay and beat both of you up for being stubborn brats, I'm afraid that I have more pressing matters to attend to," he remarked, as he turned to see three Bullheads coming towards us and started firing its mounted guns.

"Get down!" I said as I pushed myself and Ruby down to the ground and shielded us from a barrage of bullets coming from the Bullheads. Torchwick got up and ran from us while we were down.

"Hey! You almost hit me, you morons!" he yelled at the Bullheads. Considering how he treated his underlings, I wouldn't be surprised if they did try to kill him and make it look like an accident.

As we both got up. I started thinking of a way on how to deal with three bullheads, several terrorists, and one crime boss all in once. Little did I know, the answer was right behind me.

"Salutations!" An inappropriately enthusiastic voice suddenly greeted. I turned back and saw a short freckled green-eyed, orange-haired girl with a pink bow behind the back of her head—a ginger if that's what they're called, she was wearing a grey blouse and a greyer slim backpack. "You must be Jaune. Nice to meet you!" I was too dumbfounded by seeing a happy girl in the middle of a tense situation to make a verbal response.

"Penny! What are you doing here? I told you to stay back." Ruby ran to her.

"I came to help." she replied.

"No, Penny, it's too dangerous!"

"Don't worry, Ruby!" she reassured. "I'm combat ready!" A blade came out of her backpack before multiplying into several blades while they fly behind her back.

She dashed towards Sun and Blake, who was still fighting off yet another lot of White Fang troops. Penny came in and knocked out multiple terrorists with her blades. Sun and Blake could only stand by and be shocked as they watch her dispose of the remaining terrorists. The last wave of White Fang soldiers were entering the scene. Penny made a wheel out of her floating swords and it threw to them, making them all fall like bowling pins.

The three Bullheads started firing at her. Penny uses her blades to deflect the bullets from her while sending out two of them to stick at the warehouse before they both get attached by strings coming from her backpack and pulling her to the warehouse. She then used her blades to create a rotating ring and used it to charge and fire a large beam powerful enough to cut two of them in half, with White Fang members visibly falling as the sliced Bullheads crash into the water, while the third Bullhead just cowered away.

I stood by in amazement while these questions hover in my head: Who the hell was this friend of Ruby? Where did she come from? How was she doing that? What the hell was going on?! I didn't know what to expect.

Penny pierced her blades at the last Bullhead, which was carrying a container. She uses her string-attached blades to tug the Bullhead with inhuman strength as she walks back with bare difficulty.

"Woah. How is she doing that?" Ruby commented. I was asking the same thing.

The Bullhead tries to fly away in vain but remained being pulled by a petite girl who looks no older than Ruby. Penny eventually threw the Bullhead down, making it crash to a stack of containers.

While saving the containers weren't exactly an objective, as we were only here to investigate their theft, not exactly protect them, I'm still rather anxious about the damages we had to pay after all of this is done.

We got too distracted watching her that we didn't notice Torchwick get in a Bullhead.

"Hey!" I shouted. The Bullhead flew away as I tried to shoot him down before he closed the door and the Bullhead boosted away.

"Crap." I murmured as I watch him fly away scot free.

Penny's blades all swirl back to her pack in an orderly fashion. "The area is secure!" she stood straight, her smile still hasn't left her face nor did she show any sign of tiredness; she didn't even literally sweat once!

"Penny… that was AMAZING! How did you learn to fight like that?!" Ruby squealed.

"I'd be happy to tell you! But sadly it's a big secret so I can't."

Yeah, I can see why, I thought while looking at the crashed Bullhead, with one of its members barely crawling out. Which reminds me...

I went to the crash site and stomped at the White Fang terrorist unconscious before searching the body for any valuables then taking them. I went back to the duo who was still holding a conversation. Sun and Blake soon stepped in.

"Blake!" Ruby dashed to her, giving her a hug. "I'm so glad you are okay!" After letting go of her teammate, she notices something odd on the head. "Blake... you have…"

"I know. Ruby… I'm sorry for making you worry about me, and for hiding this from you for this long." Blake apologized. "Just so you'd know, I'm no longer with the White Fang. Would you please forgive me?"

"Of course. We're friends, Blake. Friends look out for each other." Ruby said. She then turned to Sun "Hey~ aren't you that monkey faunus from Friday?"

"Yep, that was me!" Sun boasted. "Sun Wukong. So, you're Blake's team leader?"

"Yes, I am. You're from Vacuo, right?"

"Mistral. Studying at Haven. I used to live Vacuo though. I'm also a team leader myself!"

"Oh, nice! Jaune is a team leader too."

"Really? It's no wonder why you're smarter than you look." he remarked. "Erm. No offense."

"It's fine," I reassured. I really didn't look like much.

"And you!" he gestured to Penny. "Man, you were so awesome! I've never seen anyone do that. You kind of saved all of us."

"It was my pleasure. It's nice to meet you all. My name is Penny."

"Well, Penny. It's good to have you at our side." I said as I looked at her handiwork. Really, had she not intervened, this would have been a lot more complicated. I doubt that even one of us would survive.

Well, we managed to foil the White Fang's robbery, seeing how they left without a single container. Well, with the cost of some of them. I hope the SDC doesn't mind losing a few dusts if it meant not giving their would-have-been robbers any.

**=o=**

  1. _A derogatory term mostly used by faunus towards human-sympathizing faunus. The White Fang also tend to use this towards faunus who refuse to join or support their cause. While originally used by humans as a term for faunus slaves/servants, it's now used by faunus supremacists to label 'race traitors' of their own kind._
  2. _Torchwick was the one in charge of the Dust shop robbery that Ruby foiled on the night Headmaster Ozpin found her and recruited her into Beacon._



* * *

An hour has passed. The first responders arrived and set up a perimeter. The cops and the paramedics took in the White Fang members. I just hope they don't mind wondering why all of them have almost empty pockets.

We were told to stay still and sit down because they still need us for questioning. We sat by silently, waiting for the authorities' next instructions. Blake was wearing her bow again and told Ruby everything. She also told all of us not to tell anyone about her previous association with the White Fang, as it might cause more unwanted trouble.

After a few minutes of waiting. A dark-skinned man in a suit and a light brown trench coat approached us, followed by two men in white dress shirts and black pants. "I'm Detective Shawn Huntley of the VPD." he introduced himself as he flashed his badge. "You can relax, none of you are in trouble. I just wanted to ask some questions regarding this incident. Are you willing to cooperate?"

We all silently nodded, the detective seemed pleased at our agreement. "Very well. First off, what made you go investigate the recent dust robberies and how did you manage to correctly find out that it was the White Fang and their next robbery would take place here?"

Blake's cat ears turned forward. "I… uh…"

I decided to intercede since fast-talking my way out of things was my expertise. "Let me handle this, Blake," I interjected before clearing my throat. "Earlier this day, she heard about the dust robbing spree and rumors that the White Fang could be involved. Sun here overheard that there was a freighter full of SDC dust containers arriving, we knew that if it was really the White Fang who was behind the robberies, then it would be their next target, especially since they have a deep hatred for the SDC. It turned out we were right." It was mostly true, all I did was left out Blake's membership with the White Fang and her personal matters with her team.

"I see." Detective Huntley cupped his chin. "I've been hearing reports that the wanted criminal—Roman Torchwick—was present at the scene. While it would make sense for him to be involved in the robbery, given his record of raiding dust shops. Why would he work alongside the White Fang, an organization known for hating humans to the extreme? And why would the White Fang allow him to work with them? It doesn't make any sense."

Blake spoke up, only this time, she had the confidence to answer. "We don't know exactly why, but I overheard him talking about an agreement with Adam Taurus."

"Adam Taurus?" the detective raised his brow. " _The_  Adam Taurus? The leader of the Vale Division of the White Fang, according to evidence? Wasn't he known for his anti-human sentiments? He must be really desperate enough to even agree to collaborate with what he would call a 'human scum'. This just keeps getting interesting…"

"You tell me." Blake murmured.

"Last question: Why exactly are you Huntsmen-in-training conducting an investigation involving the most serious and dangerous criminals known on the kingdom? You could have told the police. And while it's not uncommon for Huntsmen to fight non-Grimm threats, why take the risk? Last time I checked, you were trained to fight creatures of the Grimm and not terrorists and wanted criminals, unless you're also pursuing a career in bounty hunting.  **[1]**  Not that I don't admire your courage and determination, I'm just curious."

We all glanced at each other. I gave Blake a reassuring nod and spoke up. "Because… why shouldn't we? Who else might stop them if the police can't or won't? Our duty was to uphold peace to the kingdoms, whether if it meant fighting Grimm or criminals. Why should it matter if we were students? We trained hard enough to get ourselves into these academies; we knew it wasn't something we couldn't handle and we proved it." In reality, I knew the risks and we weren't supposed to try and stop the heist from taking place. When things got out of hand, I knew we needed to get out of there if we were to see another day. It was thanks to Penny's surprising skill that we managed to get out alive and even preventing the White Fang from getting any dust.

Detective Huntley hummed, though he was rather impressed at what I had to say. "Is that so? Well, I can see how you were able to get into Beacon. Though, if I were you, I would have left it to the professionals. That being said, we could use more people like you on the force. Not many people are willing to show this type of courage and dedication into nowadays. Keep this up and you'll be one of the greatest Huntsmen ever known." he then exhaled and wrote down a few notes on his pad. "It was nice speaking to you. Anyway, good job into preventing Torchwick and the White Fang for taking any dust, even if that meant destroying a few of the containers…"

Penny slightly giggled at that remark.

"It was better than to let them take at least one. Those containers of dust weren't something the SDC couldn't easily replace, at least the rest of the others were still intact and that's what matters. Now we know who was behind these robberies thanks to you. I admit we aren't exactly the most effective police force in the world, so I'm rather grateful for your contribution. Still, I advise you, kids, to stay in school. Seeing how you were able to fight off the perpetrators, I'd hate to see your potential go to waste."

"Yes, sir…" Ruby chimed as we all nodded.

"Good. I must be going. You're now free to leave if you please." he said before he left, the two other detectives still stood by.

"Hey, monkey boy." One of them called.

Sun gulped. "Yes…?"

"We still have our eye on you."

He nervously chuckled. "No problem, officers."

The detectives gave a death glare before they both made their exit. We all sighed in relief as we were now alone with ourselves.

"This is going to be one heck of a story to tell when I get back," Sun said.

And it surely won't be the last, unfortunately.

Weiss and Yang soon arrived. Ruby stood up and tried to reason with them as she steps in.

"Look, Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute..."

Weiss just walked past her and confronted Blake. The two silently stared at each other for a few seconds before Blake spoke up.

"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the—"

"Stop!" Weiss interrupted. "Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?" Everyone just nervously looked at the two as Weiss berates Blake. "Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided..."

Blake just stood in shame as she waited for her to finish her sentence.

"…I don't care."

"You don't care?" she was surprised by her unexpected remark.

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" Weiss inquired.

"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger—"

"Ah-ba-ba-ba-bap! I don't want to hear it." Weiss hushed. "All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up…" she paused as Blake just stares at her. "…You'll come to your teammates. And not some..." she paused and looked at Sun and carefully reconsidered her words. "…Someone else."

Blake looked at her teammates and beamed and a wiped a tear offer her face "Of course."

Weiss was glad that they made up. Yang went near Blake and patted her on the shoulder. "Good to have you back, partner."

"Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby cheerfully raised your arms. Good to know that all of this team drama is finally over, for now, we had to go through this nonsense to earn it.

Weiss looked back on Sun. "You're the faunus from the ship a couple of days ago, am I correct?"

"Yeah… that would be me." Sun scratched the back of his head.

"I'm still not quite sure about how I feel about you!" Weiss stated. Sun gave a nervous chuckle as a response.

"And Jaune..." she called, turning to me. "Thank you for looking after Blake, I guess."

"No problem. Just doing what a good friend would do." I said. I don't think I deserved that, though. I let myself get dragged here and only agreed to help because I felt guilty of letting Blake run away.

"And thanks for saving the shipment," Weiss added. "Now I don't have to hear my father flipping over this when I get home tomorrow."

"You're welcome. But I think that goes to Penny. If it weren't for her, the White Fang would have left with one or more of the containers." I said, deliberately leaving out the part where she destroys a pile of them for that to happen.

"Wait, Penny was here?" Weiss confusedly asked.

"Yeah, Penny…" I looked back and saw that she was suddenly nowhere to be found. "Where is she?"

"She was just here a minute ago," Ruby said, just as perplexed by her abrupt disappearance. For a cheerful-if-bizarre girl, it was strange for her to simply leave without telling us.

"So, you're telling me that the weird girl from earlier was responsible for saving the shipment belonging to my family's company?" Weiss skeptically said. "I find that hard to believe."

I don't blame her. That girl was pretty good at hiding what she had to offer. If anyone told me that she was some sort of powerhouse who could control multiple floating swords before witnessing it, I probably would think they have gone insane. What was she anyway? And how did Team RWBY even managed to find a girl like her?

"C'mon. Let's get outta here." Yang said. No objections to that. My team just started to get worried when I turned on my tracker.

With that, we all left the docks, Sun bids us farewell before we took the Bullhead back to Beacon.

**=o=**

  1. _Huntsmen are mostly known for slaying Grimm by default, however, this does not mean they cannot partake in other combat activities. Huntsmen who received their license can sign up for special military duties, partake in mercenary work, or chose to be independent and do anything they please, so long as they respect the laws of the kingdoms._



* * *

I never thought I'd be relieved to see Beacon again. I know I have been through some crazy shit since the first time I stepped into this place, but discovering that one your allies was a former member of a terrorist group of pissed-off faunus, and getting you into fighting said group who for some reason teamed up with a crime lord that doesn't seem to like them, then seeing a young girl effortlessly kick all of their asses out of nowhere, takes the godsdamn cake. And I have a feeling that it won't end there. The second semester could offer even worse scenarios that it might even make this whole day look like a walk in the park in comparison.

After clearing this up to my team and taking a little rest, I was still bothered by the recent events. So I went to the dorm's rooftop to clear my mind. It was one of the only places in the academy outside my dorm where I truly feel peace; I never get tired of looking at the scenery it offers, especially during at night. I want to give one last look of its view before this semester ends.

I was just standing there, all alone, until I heard the voice of a certain faunus girl. "Hey."

I turned back to the rooftop's door and saw that there was no one there. I looked at the roof tiles above and saw Blake leaning near the roof window.

"Blake, what are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same thing." she answered before leaping off the roof. "I just like to sit on top of buildings sometimes."

Just like cats, huh?

"Anyway, I'm sorry for dragging you into all that. I know it was more trouble than you expected."

"You don't have to apologize to me for anything, Blake. I went with you at my own will because I wanted to help." I said, going close to her and putting an arm on her shoulder. "I couldn't just let you go, knowing how worried your team was for you."

Though if you asked me, I probably wouldn't have gone if I knew that a simple stakeout would turn out into an all-out brawl especially if it involved an organization that probably wants to kill me after what I did to them a few months ago, and I'm sure that they hate me more now.

"But still, you wouldn't be there if it wasn't for me." she responded, gently pulling my hand off her shoulder. "It was all my fault. My fear of everyone discovering who I am is what led us to that." she whimpered. "I should have just accepted that the White Fang wasn't that good from the start."

When I heard her, all that I was able to think of was my troubled self. With that, I did something that I thought I would never do: Be honest with my feelings. "You know, I was scared too."

She wept a tear and looked at me perplexed, none verbally asking me why.

"I was afraid that something might happen to you. That you may never come back. And that it would be my fault because I let this happen. I thought if I went and helped you, I didn't have to feel guilty about myself. You don't have to blame yourself for everything, you couldn't have known that it would get that bad. I was there by choice, I bought all of that to myself." I told her. I saw myself too much in her. We both were hiding something from our friends. We both wanted to escape something, and we both have our own doubts about ourselves. Sometimes we just don't know what people would think, so we had to go with what they're comfortable with.

She came closer and abruptly gave me a hug. "I never properly thanked you for being there with me." she kept hugging me for a before letting go. "I just couldn't blame you, Jaune. You were too nice. I just don't know how to repay you for your help."

"You don't have to repay me for me anything, I just did what friends are supposed to do, be there for you."

She smiled and looked at the night sky with me. It was quiet for a bit until she broke the silence.

"The White Fang is still out there..."

"They can't keep doing what they do forever," I replied. Organizations like that tend to die out soon enough.

"But as long as there's discrimination, there will always be the White Fang." she said. "They're not going to stop until they get what they want."

"That's just how things are, Blake. But that's why we're also here. To keep Remnant safe from people like them. After you've left the White Fang, you made the right choice to become a Huntress. You can finally fight for peace for real this time." I told her.

She was flattered by that statement. "I guess I could see why they called you a hero."

I looked down as I thought about that. "Sometimes, I don't know if I'm still worthy of being called that," I said honestly. Everything I did that seemed selfless was actually for my own benefit. If I were to keep to my team and allies together so they could keep saving my hind, then I had to uphold the reputation even if I'm ashamed of it.

"You definitely do." she said, smiling at me. "I should go. They're probably wondering where I am again. Thanks again, for everything."

"No problem, Blake. If there's anything you need, just let me know." I nodded.

"I'll keep that in mind." she chimed in. "Oh, and one more thing."

"Yeah?"

She leaned in and gave a peck on my cheek.  **[1]**  "Please don't be a stranger." she said as she was doing her best to restrain her blush.

I was astounded by her sudden action that I didn't notice her leave the rooftop. Did I deserve any of that? I thought as I held my cheek. Whatever it was, I guess I earned her affinity. Blake is a curious individual, I'm actually glad I have learned more about her other than being the shy, bookwormish type.

I spent another minute looking at the shattered moon once again before going back to my dorm as well.

So this is how I end my first semester…

**=o=**

  1. _Thankfully, that was also their last kiss as far as I know._



* * *

_Editorial Note:_

_As we conclude the accounts written for the first semester, I would like to add an excerpt by Headmaster Ozpin which was recorded during the same night. It details his conversation with Jaune's father, Caiaphas Arc. The following excerpt will provide some insights to Jaune's nature and character which he refuses to talk about, even in his private memoirs._

The Ozpin Logs: The Night Before The End of The First Semester. 

While students at Huntsmen academies are considered to be much more special than an average civilian student, they're nonetheless still just normal children barely going through adulthood. This is why some of them express dislike in studying, preferring recreational activities that children their age enjoy. As a result, even the most skilled of Huntsman tend to have unimpressive grades. Although knowledge is powerful and important, it's nothing more than a tool to meet ends.

Jaune Arc for example, when he was at elementary, he graduated with a mix of B's and C's, rarely getting an A at all. After his first five months here, his grades are not exactly better, with an interesting exception. He managed to receive an A+ in combat training, something that even his eldest and brightest sister struggles to achieve in her first couple of years. Glynda was rather surprised by this, even if she was aware of what he was capable of, she was still surprised someone managed to earn a perfect grade on her subject when he struggles on all the other classes. This was not a case of 'might over mind', Mr. Arc has shown to have a way with words as much as he has a way of fighting. His charismatic leadership and tactical ability have played a role in his excellence in combat training. If anyone saw how he performs during her class, it's clear to see why he received such high grade. And by watching his recent exploit, he has certainly proved that he was the Huntsman we need.

Speaking of which, I was contacting his father to discuss his first semester here in Beacon.

"Caiaphas…"

"Ozpin…"

"Your son has been doing quite well. You were right when you said that he would remind me of you frequently. Just like you, he couldn't excel in a single class even if his life depended on it, except combat training of course."

"Heh, it's funny how history repeats. That's what I'm also worried about."

"There must be a reason behind for his comportment. They cannot be explained by simple inheritance. Your daughters don't display the same type of fearfulness and self-doubt that he and your forefathers possess."

"I'm afraid I'm not in liberty to discuss that. There is a reason why he refuses to talk about it."

"Is it a family curse that affects only males by any chance?"

"Perhaps, but that would be too ridiculous. I would say that we were all unfortunate enough to have such similar demeanours. It's probably just coincidence, it's completely natural to be wary in a world full of demonic creatures that exist solely to destroy humanity."

"Some people would say that there are no coincidences."

"They just like to think that."

"You should be proud of your son, Caiaphas. He was able to accomplish more things than I anticipated. And as somebody who has been running this school for countless years, that is quite an achievement."

"I'm proud of him alright. What troubles me is that you would use him as an instrument for that glorified chess game of yours. Do I have to remind you that I left your inner-circle because I had a family to look after, especially with a son who doesn't exactly know what he wants in life?"

"I can reassure you that I won't send him in tasks that I know he cannot accomplish. If he doesn't want to attend in Beacon any longer, then I will not force him. Once the second semester begins, it will be one of the first questions I would ask of him."

"You better be sure. There is no doubt that he would be a great Huntsman, Ozpin. But I want to see him be more than that. I want him to live long enough to pass the family name to the next generation. He deserves to be something more than a pawn for a never-ending war."

"You can relax. If there is anyone who should be worried, it's Salem. Your son is more than just a mere pawn."

"I hope this isn't one of your chess metaphors again, oh so, Great & Powerful Ozpin. I still remember what happened to Summer."

"I have grown to be more considerate after that. Which is why I'm giving your son a choice. He won't be alone, Caiaphas. If he is not going to turn the tides of this war, then the people he inspired will. For now, we just need to see where this goes. Remember why you recommended him to me."

"I suppose there is a chance into setting things right once and for all. I do believe in him, after all. Just please, Ozpin. Make sure that he will be alright."

"With a boy like that? There is no reason for me not to."

The call ended. Shortly after, I received another message from Qrow, simply saying 'The Queen has Pawns.'

It appears that Salem has set up some competition. But as long as children like Rose, Nikos and Arc continue to remain at my side. She would have to do much more than threaten me into submitting.

Enjoy the power you still have while it lasts, Salem. For soon, the tables will turn.

* * *

 


	6. Food For Thought

* * *

  _Editorial Note:_

_The next extract of the Jaune Archive takes place two weeks after the previous one, during the start of the second semester. Notable entries taking place during the break will be included at the extras should someone be interested in them, but for now they will be skipped since they're not pertinent to Jaune's Beacon life._

* * *

  **Chapter 6**

**Food For Thought**

* * *

  

> _"The king is a good chap, but I can't help but notice that he is hiding something. It's almost as if that he is involving us in something too elaborate to comprehend."_
> 
> **_-Captain Harry "The Flash" Arc, when asked about King Phadrig VII._ **

 

When the second semester started, my feelings were ambivalent. I missed home, but I also started missing Beacon during the two-week break. Don't get me wrong—I still think it is a deranged place where I'm always at risk, but there was something that made me want to come back. It's like the place put a spell on me or something.

I was able to enjoy the simple and peaceful atmosphere of home and take advantage of the time I had. The only thing that bothered me was Dad and Rose were impressed at my performance on Beacon that they started dragging me to a few missions—and not the ones that involving killing a few low class Grimm and going home like the ones I used to take, but the ones that involve killing whole entire nests and slaying freaking Alpha Beowolf. Thankfully, they were brief compared to the rest of my stay on home, only taking about twelve hours in total over two whole weeks.

I also got Rose to have my laser pistol upgraded. It was already useful before—now it is as twice as useful while weighing less and being able to hold more ammo. Rose may be crazy with guns, but she's the right type of crazy. She knows how to make guns look and feel effective in a world where aura would make these things look useless. It was thanks to her that I'm able to protect my own life with a simple yet very effective pistol using only one hand.

Still, I'm never going to forget that one time I was practicing with a rifle when I went hunting with her—I accidentally shot and killed a deer which was mothering a fawn at the time. Oops. (We were supposed to be hunting for food and maybe predators) That was when I decided to just stick with mimicking Dad's fighting style by using pistols while still being able to swing swords at the same time.

I immediately went to the residence hall after another nauseating flight on the airship. I'm never going to get used to that, am I? At least I bought a plastic bag this time, now I don't have to worry about throwing up on someone's shoes. But no matter how hard I try—I never seem to become habituated to air travel and ride without getting sick.

As I was heading to my dorm, I spotted Yang coming out of hers. She was already on her uniform. "Hey!" she waved after spotting me. "How's the ploy, Vomit-Boy?"

"Took some stocks, Goldilocks." I jokingly replied. I've been in Beacon long enough for me to start being much more open with my quips. It helps that I spent a fair amount of time these past two weeks going in missions with a sister of similar personality and appearance who could easily pass as a long-lost twin of her. Though I should still put them to a minimum if I were to continue acting nice.

She chuckled at my response. "It's good to see you again. Shh—shucks doesn't it feel good to back?"

"Yeah~. I can't wait to see what this semester has in store for us." I said with all the enthusiasm I could muster.

"Oh, I forgot to thank you for helping out Blake when she ran away. I wouldn't know what to do without my partner, even if I didn't know much about her aside from being a ninja that likes to read weird books and all."

"It's not really a big deal," I said as modestly as I could. "Knowing her, she would have still been fine without me. It was Penny that saved the day."

"Then it must have been selfless of you to help out anyway," Yang said. "You really got 'hero' written all over you."

It appears that my compulsive desire to better my relationship with my allies to enforce my strategy is making my reputation as a so-called hero worse since I don't have a better alternative. "It's what I do, I guess. So how's she doing?"

"She's doing great. Still quiet as usual, but she's become much more open and friendly since what happened that day. If it weren't for that, I don't think we'd be chatting in our scrolls during the break. Heck, she's even getting along with Weiss!"

Good to hear. Weiss is not an easy girl to be friends with, especially if you happen to work for an organization that's targeting her family's company. Team RWBY seems to be getting along well with each other compared to the past few months. If they keep this up, I don't have to see them bicker over trivial things anymore.

"Has anyone seen my binder?" A voice belonging to a certain ice-cold heiress suddenly called from Team RWBY's dorm.

She smirked as she shook her head while still looking at me. "I gotta go. Catch ya' later, lady killer." Yang patted my shoulder as she passed through me.

"Peace out, girl scout," I replied, which she responded with a wave with her back turned.

I watched her leave before going to my team's dorm and opened the door while I prepared myself to get jumped by Nora since she does that sometimes last semester. Surprisingly, she didn't. Instead, she was sitting in her bed with Ren beside, behaving as if there was nothing for her to do.

"Welcome back, Fearless Leader!"

"Good to see all you again." I greeted as I dropped my bag at my bed.

"You're finally here," Pyrrha said as she the bathroom after tying up her hair. "So, what can you tell us about what you did this past couple of weeks?"

"Eh, the usual family stuff. Just helped with the farm and hunted down a few Grimm. Nothing out of the ordinary." I answered as I played with their expectations. Grimm hunts that involve clearing whole packs was just everyday work for some badass heroic Huntsman they paint me as. "How about you?"

"Ren and I stayed at Vale since we have nowhere else to go to," Nora responded. "This kingdom is prettier than I imagined!"

"Went to some dojos. It's was nice to just train and meditate while Nora does her own thing." Ren said.

"Yeah, I also spent the break training," Pyrrha responded. "My parents wanted to keep me sharp for the upcoming tournament. Speaking of which, they said that would be happy to see you, Jaune."

"Wait, me?" I was rather surprised by that, especially considering that Pyrrha came from a culture where might makes right. I really don't know what to feel when meeting the ones that trained her to become the invincible girl that everyone knew.

"You lead me and this team for months. They're curious into meeting the person who partnered with me in this academy."

"Maybe someday, Pyrrha, maybe someday." I chimed, earning her smile in return. I went back into facing everyone on the room. "Alright team, who's ready for the second semester?"

"I do!" Nora excitedly raised her hand. "And you too, Ren!" she raised his as well.

"Good!" I remarked. "Now remember what I taught you last semester. Everything then was only preparations for this semester, this is where things start to get real. We will soon start taking missions and participate in the tournament. If we continue working well as a team—then there is nothing that can get past us. We were able to kill a Nevermore, fight some bandits and get an A+ from Professor Goodwitch herself, so we know we could do this. Now, are you guys ready?"

Nora saluted while Ren firmly nodded. Pyrrha continues to gaze at me in approval.

"Then let's get to work," I said as I went to change to my uniform and led the team into the auditorium to hear the announcements for this semester.

* * *

Like I told my team before, last semester was just a preparation for this semester, so I really have to take things more seriously now that this is where everything I feared starts here. I wanted to make sure my team was prepared for the worse as well, and most importantly, keep me alive as usual.

One of the most noticeable differences from this semester from the previous one is that the exchange students from the other kingdom's top Huntsman academies had arrived on Beacon for the Vytal Festival. Atlas has students wearing white uniforms, while Haven students from Mistral wore black. Apparently, Shade students don't seem to have uniforms probably because of how hot Vacuo is. The student body here also became much more colorful than the first day when I remembered everyone mostly being a bunch of faceless nobodies.

Aside from the extra emphasis on combat training, missions and the tournament, there will also be an upcoming dance this Sunday. All that was needed was a formal attire and optionally—a partner, if you can get one, that is.

After the announcements for the activities for this semester where everyone along with exchange students was gathered, we were told that there won't be any classes until tomorrow and recess immediately began. The students at Beacon went to the cafeteria to get their lunch while the exchange students were given time to unpack and explore the academy.

One of the best things about going home was that I'm able to drink tanna again. I was able to bring a whole pack of tanna teabags with me so I can drink it anytime while I'm at Beacon. I bought a teapot full of it to the cafeteria as I took my lunch.

I poured some of it at my cup. I was at bliss after taking a single sip. I never get tired of drinking this—its unique taste is what sets this off from other drinks that it cannot be emulated. I have to thank Uncle Fergen **[1]**  for introducing the drink to my Dad, if it weren't for him I would have never experienced drinking any of this, especially of how rare it is outside Morosco.

Ren saw me enjoy my drink and notices that it was not your average tea. "Jaune, would you mind if I take a sample of the tea you are having?"

"Of course. Knock yourself out."

He took the teapot and poured a fraction of it to an empty cup before taking a sip. It took a few seconds for him to process the taste as he made a hum after doing so.

"So, what do you think?" I asked.

"I'm only able to describe it as 'peculiar' at the moment." he said in naturally neutral tone before taking another sip. "What type of tea is this even?"

"It's tanna. I don't blame you if you never heard of it."

"Oh, that. Being somewhat of a tea connoisseur myself, I actually heard of it—I just never got the chance of seeing it in the flesh, let alone taste it. I heard of how distinctive the flavor is, now I see why."

"That's what makes it interesting," I said before giving mine another sip. "I can still remember my first time tasting it and not being sure about what to think."

"That sounds neat! Can I try one?" Nora asked after finishing her sixth pancake under a minute.

"Sure. You might not like it though, the taste sorta depends on the person."

"Oh please, it's just tea! How bad can it be?" she said as she pours her cup and took a sip, after that she froze while her pupils contracted.

"Uhh, Nora. Are you alright?" I said as I wave my hand in front of her.

"I believed… I have discovered… the secrets of the universe." she said before I snapped at her face, waking her up as she shook her head. "I mean… it's a little bitter but it's okay, I guess."

"I'm curious on what makes this drink intriguing. Can I try too?" Pyrrha asked.

"Go ahead." I granted as I gave her a filled cup.

She took a sip and took a few seconds to describe its taste. "Well, you're right about it being distinctive," she remarked before taking another sip. "It's certainly something."

"You'll get used to it. I won't force you if you can't though." While it's a drink that I cannot stop drinking myself, you could say it was literally not everyone's cup of tea.

I finished my cup and poured another one. Ren said he was going to fetch an order of his and that he will come back. Suddenly two girls approached me, one of them having a short purple hair and was wearing a denim vest, and the other has long dirty blonde hair and was wearing a light green sundress.

"Uh, hello there!" the purple haired one said, while her companion just nervously waved as she blushed.

"Why, hello. May I help you with something?" I greeted as gentlemanly as I could. Gotta put that Arc charisma to good use.

"Oh nothing, not at all!" she responded. "It's just great to finally meet you in the flesh. Jaune Arc, was it?"

It appears I'm still relevant. As much as I'm still embarrassed by it, I find its ability to attract some fine ladies to be favorable. "Yep. At your service." I nodded.

"Oh man, this is awesome!" she audibly muttered to herself before squealing. "Sorry, my name is Nebula, and this is my partner, Dew," she said as she gestured to her. "Dew, say hi."

"H-hi." the red-faced blonde shyly greeted.

"Come on, you can do better than that. Where's the tough gal inside you?"

"I just wanted to say… you're pretty great... that's all." Dew stuttered.

"That's a little better. Sorry, she wasn't always like this. She's just nervous around cute boys."

"Nebula! You were fawning over him too a minute ago." Dew retorted.

Nebula's face started to match her partner in terms of redness as she began to chuckle. "It's just that you were so amazing that you beat El Segadore. You see we live in Vacuo and we been hearing scary stories about that guy and heard how many people he killed and the lives he ruined. So when we heard that he was no more, we were amazed that you were able to defeat a monster like him. How did you do it?"

"I just did what I had to do. Who else was able to stop him then?" I said, technically speaking the truth. I never even knew who he was before it went viral, and if I did, I would have run a lot harder then.

"Wow. You're so brave…" Nebula purred as she and Dew started to stare at me long enough to notice my partner that they slowly turned to her. "Hey, you're the four-time Mistrali champion—Pyrrha Nikos, am I right?"

"Yes, that's me," Pyrrha nodded as I noticed her shift to her composed expression for half a second.

"You're pretty cool too!" she complimented before glancing at me "…and lucky even. You get to be famous and be partners with him. Man, we are so jealous."

"Why, thank you."

"You're an inspiration for all of us," Dew added. "We're doing our best for the tournament because of you."

"You're participating in the tournament too?" Pyrrha inquired.

"Yeah can't wait to see both of you fight and maybe even challenge you!" Nebula replied. "But of course, we'll just lose if that happens. Because let's be honest, who could take on The Slayer of The Killer Mariachi and The Invisible Girl herself."

"Don't worry. I think you'll do nicely. The tournament is about having fun and proving yourself at what you can do, it's just a friendly competition between the kingdoms." I said, smiling at them.

"I suppose you're right. We're not here to win anything anyway." She brightened up. "We should go. It was nice talking to you!"

I stared at the duo as they left while they were both audibly giggling. I turned to Pyrrha who was frowning at me.  **[2]**  "What?" I asked.

"I think she's jelly~" Nora sang while whispering to me.

"Nora!" Pyrrha suddenly yelled, which startled me.

We decided not to talk about it and went back into enjoying our respective meals. I looked at Team RWBY who were sitting in the table in front of us. Nora was tossing grapes and berries at Yang as she catches them with her mouth. Blake was still wearing her bow and I'm kind of irritated by that, to be honest. She doesn't have a reason to hide it anymore—I doubt that people would even care especially that they're already familiar with her enough that nobody would care that she's a faunus—aside from a few assholes, but that's just how they are and almost no one sympathizes with them. Besides, she already looked like a cat with that bow. It felt like she learned nothing that day.

Ruby was discussing with their activities for this semester. Was it just me or does Ruby sound a little different? Don't get me wrong, she always has a high pitched voice, but something tells me that she sounded squeakier than I remembered.

"What are you talking about?" Blake inquired.

"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" she answered.

Her sister then spoke up. "I always kick my semesters off with a  _Yang_!"

No, just no. Not even by her standards, and her standards are already lower than hell itself.

Nora understandably groaned and threw an apple at her. "Bad Yang! No more grapes for you." The apple her face and Nora earned her ire.

I watch in amusement as I poured my cup with the last remaining contents of the kettle. "Ruby and her team look like they're about to have some fun."

"Speaking of which, do you have anything planned for us for today?" Pyrrha inquired.

I took a sip in my cup. "Not really. But if you want to, then we could—" I was then interrupted when an apple abruptly flew in and smashed my cup to pieces.

I froze in denial as I stare at the shattered remains of the cup while tanna spills out. I didn't have to turn my head to know that it was from Yang. I just sat there in grief, lamenting on my wasted cup. My sorrow soon turned into rage as I started gripping my hands. Nobody messes with my tanna—that drink comforted me in a dark period of my life and I'll be damned if anyone desecrates this amazing drink and gets away with it.

"Oh no! Yang just broke Jauney's tea!" exclaimed Nora. "Don't worry, Fearless Leader. I'll avenge your tea!"

"Do it then." I gave my approval in a voice mixed with grief and fury. My mind was filled with fury that there was barely room for any logic and reason for the moment.

"Oh goody." Ren came back to our table holding a pie. He had an eager look with him which was a rare sight to see even as a teammate. Still, he has his moments.

"Ren, can I have some of that?" Nora asked.

Ren gave the pie to Nora. "Sure just don't—." before she was able to let him finish, Nora threw the pie towards Yang. Unfortunately, she's wasn't good at aiming it, so it ended up landing on Weiss' face instead. "—eat most of it…"

My narrowed eyes widened as I was alarmed by Nora's blunder while my team looked with shock expressions. Ren, meanwhile, only expressed mere disappointment. "I just… wanted to… eat some pie."

"Grr~ You'll pay for that!" Weiss yelled. She grabbed an nearby apple and threw it at Nora. Nora ducked, causing the apple to hit a random passerby behind her. That person fell to the floor, dropping his tray and have his hot soup spill over him as he screams in agony.

"Food fight!" A random person stood from his chair and shouted. Suddenly the entire mess hall erupted into chaos. Food and drinks was flying everywhere. Some fought in groups while others fought for themselves, attacking even their own friends and teammates. It was a free-for-all.

I hunkered down below my table as the mayhem escalates by the second. Normally, I would try to diffuse the situation or get away from this madness, but I was still hung over by the destruction of my precious drink and I wasn't going anywhere until it was avenged.

Feeling somewhat enraged, I got out of the table and saw the battle occur. Tables were scattered and food was sticking out everywhere. I was barely able to see anything other than the barely distinct uniformed figures throwing food at one another.

I managed to dodge an incoming orange that was thrown at me from the side. I got up and saw the person responsible holding more oranges as he attempted to hurl another one at me. After avoiding it, I grabbed the nearest tray and swung the next orange and deflected it to his stomach. He drop all of his oranges as he fell to the ground.

"Jaune! Over here!" Pyrrha called over, making me turn near the edge of the mess hall and saw a fortress made out of tables and vending machines by my own team. I was impressed that they are able to make something like this. It's my team, they have yet to let me down, so why should I expect anything less from them?

I rushed toward my team's bastion, using the tray as a shield to protect me from raining projectiles of food while my teammates provide covering fire. I managed to make my way there and stood on one of the vending machines at the fort.

"Good to finally have you with us, Fearless Leader!" Nora saluted on the top.

"Likewise." I returned the compliment. I looked around and saw that many students were now retreating toward the exit, while some others continued to fight. "Keep going! You guys are doing great." I ordered as we continue to throw our food from the fort.

While watching the mayhem transpire, I spotted a girl throw a can of grape soda at someone before it splat open. At that moment, I felt the coin drop. "Pyrrha get as many soda cans as you can," I commanded.

"I'm on it." She then used her semblance to attract as many soda cans near our fortress, including the ones inside the vending machines.

"Hey, Arc!" I turned around and quickly leaned away from a slice of pizza (with those Godsforsaken pineapples) coming from Russel Thrush. "Team CRDL would like to send their regards!"

I rolled my eyes at this. I almost forgot about those idiots since they rarely messed with me for this past couple of months. I picked up one of the cans, shook it and sprayed it all on Russel before throwing it at his face and knocking him to the floor. "Save them for another time!"

Nora gave out an evil laugh before singing her signature song. "I'm queen of the castle~! I'm queen of the castle~!" At that point, we successfully managed to drive everyone out from the mess hall—except for Team RWBY, who was still standing strong.

"Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful!" Ruby crushed a carton of milk with her hand. "It will be delicious!" she cried with her teammates joining her.

Damn right, but I'll be the one who'll be serving justice around here. It was now time for me to initiate my plan to exact revenge. "Hey Nora, you know what I just realized?"

"What?" She turned to me and asked.

"Team Deathmatch," I answered.

"Team Deathmatch?"

"Team Deathmatch!" Ruby shouted after hearing us.

Her ice-queen of a partner gave a puzzled look. "Team Deathmatch?"

"Team Deathmatch!" Yang pumped her fist.

Pyrrha turned to me confusedly. "Team… Deathmatch?"

"Team Deathmatch," I said nonchalantly to her.

"Team Deathmatch…" Ren half-heatedly joined in.

Nora's face brightened up as she bounced. "Team Deathmatch!"

"Team Deathmatch!" Ruby shouted again.

Blake groaned but decided to play along. "Team Deathmatch."

"Team Deathmatch~!" Yang sang, leaning toward her partner.

Distract the opposition. Check. Now it was time to make the cafeteria colorful. I nodded to Pyrrha, signaling her to use her polarity to shake the soda cans near us before sending them on the top center of the mess hall.

"Team Deathmatch!" Ruby shouted for the last time.

"Enough! We get it already!" Weiss shouted. "Now why don't we just get this over with before—?" she then noticed a large shadow hover over them before looking up as they saw a mass of soda cans floating in the middle of the mess hall.

"Quick, get in under the tables!" Ruby ordered her team, which they did.

"Now!" I signaled. Pyrrha let go of the cans. They fell almost simultaneously as they smashed open with their substance, summoning a colorful haze around the cafeteria.

"What's our next step?" Ren inquired.

"We charge." I rallied my team to the offensive as we got off our fortress, using the colored vapor as a substitute for a smoke screen.

"Hey, this smells good!" Nora remarked as she passes through the haze of soda.

"Focus, Nora!" I told her.

"Right!" she said before leaping and grabbing a rod and using it as a handle for an improvised hammer and stuck it into a watermelon.

Ren rolled into a table and took two celeries as his choice of weapons. Pyrrha grabbed two baguettes and tossed one to me while I went and picked up a bottle of ketchup on the way.

"Attack!" Ruby commanded after they crawled out from the tables. They were having a little trouble seeing through the haze, not to mention getting distracted by the smell. They were still able to spot us and we engaged in combat. I faced off Yang; Pyrrha was against Weiss; while Ren and Nora double-teamed on Blake, who was doing her best to hold them both back. Ruby was nowhere to be seen and I was too occupied to even bother looking for her, the haze that I just caused did not help.

Yang rolled out and shoved two turkeys in her hands. "You want me, Vomit-Boy? Bring it on!"

She then lunged at me. I proceeded to do my best to dodge every punch coming from her. I have a few strategies prepared against Yang, along with the rest of her team—in case we were to face them. It was best not to invoke her semblance yet as the best course of strategy was to take advantage of her aggression until she tires out and make herself more vulnerable.

She was getting annoyed by this that she decided to taunt me. "What's the matter, afraid to hit a pretty girl?"

Maybe. But shooting one might be a different story. After I continued to avoid a few more punches, I strafed back and fired a blast of ketchup onto her face, knowing it was too soft to count as a hit.

"Hey! You sprayed some ketchup on my hair!" she yelled after wiping her face.

"You smashed my tea." I retorted.

"That's what you're upset about?!"

"I could say the same thing to you."

"Why you little…" she ran back toward me and tried to punch me again. She was getting too fast that I was getting tired of dodging while it gets increasingly difficult to do so. Alas, I eventually got hit by the last two jabs, knocking me back to the ground.

"This ends here…" she warmed up her upcoming attacks.

I was still recovering and was desperate enough to go through, so I did my best to loudly mimic the sound of a sloth. "Qraa! Qraa!"

Yang paused in bewilderment. "What are you doi—?" Nora came in after hearing my signal and swung her away mid-sentence.

"Thanks, Nora!"

"Anytime, Fearless Leader!" she saluted before deflecting some fruits being thrown at her. She dashed back to Weiss who fought her with a swordfish as a substitute for a rapier.

I looked at Yang resting on a crater in the wall. I saw her eyes turn to red and her hair began to glow as she angrily stared at me back. "You're going to fucking regret that!"

Oh brother. Every time I tried to prepare myself against her, I feared that this would happen. Yang only swore when her semblance was active as if her eyes and furious tone didn't make that obvious enough. I was in for a world of pain.

I took a tray and prepared to brace myself for the worst as she started running towards me. She was suddenly pushed away by a wave of soda cans. Pyrrha jumped in and threw a baguette at her before quickly turning to me. "I'll handle her. You go help Ren and Nora!" she picked up another baguette and went to do battle with Yang.

I went to Ren and Nora, who were fighting Blake and Weiss respectively. Ren and Blake were fighting acrobatically, with Ren at one point threw some carrots at Blake while in midair—as if they were throwing knives, which she deflected with her two baguettes. Nora was meanwhile swinging her 'hammer' as she parries Weiss' attacks. Suddenly, Ruby came in, surfing on a tray, she then leaped to Nora and swung said tray at her, staggering her before Weiss gave one last thrust of her swordfish with a black glyph behind Nora, making her fly away to the wall.

"Nora!" Ren exclaimed, giving Blake the opportunity to strike him down.

After finally putting the dynamic duo out of commission, Weiss and Blake turned their attention toward me.

"Checkmate!" Ruby shouted while pointing at me as she stood on a table.

"Oh, nuts." I muttered to myself. Fighting with one of Team RWBY was one thing. Fighting two or more of them at the same time was another and the thought alone haunts me.

Blake went toward me first. I blasted a bottle of ketchup towards her only for it to fly past through her, identifying it as a shadow clone. I quickly swung my baguette at my back, deflecting a strike coming from the real Blake who attempted to flank me. After locking breads for a second, I pushed her back before clashing our trading blows with our baguettes. In the middle of it—I noticed Weiss charging while pointing her blade at me. I turned around and pointed my bottle at Blake and sprayed at her as she blocked them with her both of her baguettes while I swung mine at Weiss' swordfish.

I went to parry all of Weiss' attacks until she was able to slice my weapon in half. I threw the half I was holding at her face then spun around while squeezing my bottle, spraying the last batch of it around my surroundings, hitting them both with it. Then, I threw the ketchup bottle at Blake's face and swiped one of her baguettes while she was off-balance. I swung a flurry of quick slashes at Weiss, overwhelming her and giving me the chance to strike her down with her defenses going kaput. I turned back and did the same to Blake, which was much easier since her defenses were much weaker in one-handed melee.

After finally defeating the monochrome duo by some merciful miracle. I panted for a brief moment. Looking back towards Pyrrha and Yang, who both were still in the middle on the duel between the power-houses. Yang was obviously growing exhausted from the fight, but after a quick glance to her fallen partners, she was visibly enraged and gave a punch powerful enough to knock Pyrrha back to the tables.

"Jaune~!" Yang yelled furiously. As she started to dash toward me. I hastily picked up the nearest tray and barely blocked her strike as she pushing me on top of the floor.

She picked up the metal tray and breaks it in half with her bare hands. I crawled back as I throw every projectile I come across towards her—which she just shoves off. She was panting hard as she walks slowly towards me before suddenly a pie flew in and hit her face.

It was something Nora tried to do before the whole thing started, so it was good enough for me.

I turned around and saw Pyrrha puffing, mostly out of fatigue from the fight and the amount of usage of her semblance. "It's all up to you now." she said before buckling down the floor.

Well, there goes my backup. While Pyrrha was not the type to give in—she used all of her remaining willpower so I could go forward that she needed to rest; I wasn't going to let that go in vain.

"I guess it's just me and you now then!" Ruby said. I turned around and saw my last opponent standing on the top of our fortress. Talk about Red Alert.

"I'm impressed that you managed to defeat my sisters-in-arms, Jaune. But can you handle the wind?" I've seen Ruby fight and even have some tactics against her from early-planning before but I was not anticipating what I was about to bear witness.

She used her semblance to dash off the tower and created a slipstream that threw a hailstorm of food and projectiles at me. Grabbing a ham by its drumstick and infusing my aura with it—I deflected the incoming projectiles coming toward me. I stomped at the nearest tray then grabbed it to use it as a shield to block off the fruits. Before proceeding, I took one of the soda cans in midair and drank it.  **[3]**

Ruby landed and picked up the food around her and hurled it all at me. I jumped out of the way and picked up a bottle of ketchup and mustard and fired them both at Ruby, who blocked both of them with two plates before throwing them away. She used her semblance to create a wind strong enough to send me flying toward a wall. She then flung all assortment of fruits toward me. I rolled out and got back on the floor before throwing some the fruits on the ground at her. She started using her semblance yet again. As I avoided the food coming from the storm, I picked up my weapons and threw one last apple at her while she was dashing with her speed, breaking her momentum. She was knocked to her side after getting hit but she recovered quickly as she slides down the floor.

I stormed towards her, she tried to stop me by flinging more food toward me, which I just deflected as I make my way through. When I got next to her, there was barely a fight. As much of a remarkable fighter Ruby is—she was inept at fighting without her scythe, so it was pretty much over after that. After knocking her to the floor, I pointed my ketchup bottle at her.

"Justice has been served…" I quipped.

"Do what you must." She over-dramatically played along, closing her eyes as she accepted defeat.

I looked at her in pity before squeezing my bottle and sent the final blast that'll end this war… by deliberately missing and shooting at the floor near the side of her face.

She opened her eyes and was puzzled at my decision to not finish her off. I dropped both of my weapons and offered my hand. Kinda reminding me of the first day when I found her lying down on the courtyard after that explosion she caused.

She gladly accepted my offer as I help her pull her up. The others were getting up as well, dusting themselves off while still covered in food particles. No one was seriously hurt thanks to the miracle of aura.

"Well, that was fun. You guys fought great." It was actually fun to test my team in a unique way while seeing if we could take on our sister team.

"You guys did great too. Fighting you had been the most fun. We should spar more often." Ruby said.

No thanks, Team RWBY was frightening enough fighting against with food alone, I should be thankful that I'm on their side on serious situations, and I still can't believe I just won. "Just defending the queen's honor. Isn't that right, Nora?"

"Correct, my trusty subject—or should I say, Fearless Leader."

"Also, you should tell your sister to be more careful with my tea. I don't get to drink it much these days."

"Not a problem!" Ruby chimed in before making a suspicious grin with both of her hands at her back. "Oh, and one more thing."

"What is it?"

She then mashed a pie at my face before I was able to notice it. "I finally got you!" she laughed as I removed the pie from my face. I was initially annoyed before laughing it off with her, pleasantly enjoying the time we just had.

"Thanks, Jaune, for helping set up this day to be the best day ever."

"Your welcome," I said, wiping the pie off my face.

She smiled at me before she started to look fearful after looking at the figure behind my back. I turned around and almost made a feminine screech after seeing the face of an unamused Miss Goodwitch.

She growled angrily at me, and I was only able to respond with a whimper. She turned her attention towards the room and used her telekinesis to arrange the tables and chairs back to their original position within seconds. The mess hall was not fully clean yet, there was still plenty of food and trash scattered across the floor and on the walls, not to mention, a few craters.

Miss Goodwitch then turned to us all. "Children, do not play with your food. You're supposed to be the defenders of the world, so I insist you all act like it." she scolded us while keeping her professional tone. She then levitated a few brooms, buckets and mops and gave them all to us. "You are not to leave until this room is tidied up. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Professor Goodwitch." We all ashamedly complied together.

When then proceeded to begin cleaning our own mess. It was a rather huge mess hall so it took a while. On the bright side, we didn't have to pay for the damages, like the broken plates and the wasted food.

Lesson of the day: Never mess with a man's tea… and also Yang's puns are really fucking dangerous.

Kids in Vacuo could have eaten these.

 

**=o=**

  1. _Fergen Gustav is a close friend and accomplice of Caiaphas Arc. While not biologically related to the Arcs in any way, he had received the title of an honorary uncle to the Arc children because of his loyalty to their father._
  2. _A reoccurring feeling I also possess when reading through certain interactions in Jaune's writings._
  3. _No such thing happened. I do recall him getting hit by a can on the face, however._



* * *

 

Once we were finally done with cleaning the messy mess of a mess hall, we all went to clean ourselves and put on our usual clothes. Thankfully, we had extra school uniforms for us to wear tomorrow while the current ones were still in the laundry.

We decided to hang out at the library. Team RWBY was playing the game of Remnant, a board game that has players assume the role of a conqueror, representing each one of the four kingdoms as they compete for world domination while using the Grimm for whatever reason. If you think about it—the player characters in that game are a bunch of power-hungry warmongers who uses the very creatures that cause most of the problems of the world to achieve as their subjects to take over Remnant. It's really that dark. At least in reality, no one in the four kingdoms was dumb enough to think that Grimm would be a practical military asset, since the last time someone tried to use the Grimm on their side, it didn't end well.

Meanwhile, we were at another table not far from theirs, reading on what we could get our hands on. Pyrrha suggested we started studying in advance, especially since this semester was said to be harder than the last, and while Team JNPR did get the most impressive grade in combat training, Nora and I still needed to improve our theoretical studies, so she took away my comic-books and gave me a textbook titled 'The Fundamentals of Dust: Second Edition'. Making a grunt in frustration that I had to deal with my worst subject this early. Nora had already fallen asleep after the first few minutes, and this is all while Team RWBY looked like they were having a blast.

"Pretty sneaky, sis, but you just activated my trap card!" Yang said after giving a sinister laugh, making her sister shriek. "Giant Nevermore!" she slammed a card on her table. "If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

"But, if you roll a six or lower—the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!" Ruby retorted.

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take," Yang said.

By the looks of it, Weiss just stared at her cards, not knowing what to know nor did she know what was exactly going on, while Blake was occupied with her book to even bother playing.

Yang rolled the dice, and by the sounds of it, it rolled in her favor.

"NOOO~! My precious soldiers!" Ruby screamed in defeat.

Nora's groaned and got up. "Role-players!" she scoffed at them before returning to her nap, and this is coming from someone who proclaimed herself as a queen of a castle earlier and has a wardrobe of costumes for some reason that I don't want to know.

I sniggered as I go back to reading my textbook, or at least, pretending to read. I have no clue what I'm reading about without Pyrrha tutoring me. I realized that in order to understand the contents of this book—you must have knowledge from Dust Basics, so if I were to learn anything from this, I must refer to my textbook last semester.

"I'll be back. Just going to fetch some books at the dorm." I stood up and left. While heading there, I took a minute to eavesdrop on Team RWBY as they were playing their game. It was Weiss' turn and she had no idea how to play, so Yang went out of her way to help her out.

"…And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" Yang instructed, "Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war." she said before going back to her seat.

Weiss reviewed her cards. "And that means..."

"You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!" Ruby said.

Weiss paused for a moment before standing up and gave an evil laugh then went over on an over-the top-speech. "Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms—!"

"Trap card..."

"Huh?"

"Your armies have been destroyed," Yang stated as she moves the pieces on the board.

"I hate these games of emotions we play!" Weiss sobbed as she returns to her seat.

"Stay strong, Weiss! We'll make it through this together!" Ruby said, hugging her partner.

"Shut up! Don't touch me."

Wow, Nora was right about this team being full of role-players, barring Blake, of course, assuming her books aren't giving her any ideas.

"Maybe you should start appeasing the RNG **[1]**  then, Ice Queen." Yang advised.

I chuckled at the group before going back to leaving the library. Before I was able to go any further, however, I saw Sun and some pretty boy with blue hair and goggles on his forehead wearing a white shirt and tie underneath a red coat coming. My mind then pretty much decided that I would have to study dust fundamentals another time.

"Jaune, my man!" Sun greeted. I turned back and tried to walk away, but he was able to pull me and put an arm over my shoulders. "It's good to see you again. How's it hanging?"

"I'm doing fine, thank you for asking," I said.

"So this is the guy you keep talking about." His friend stated. "I'm Neptune, nice to meet you. No offense, but I pictured you to be a bit more... Alpha-looking, I think?"

Excuse me, what?

"Hey, Sun!" Ruby greeted.

"Ruby, Yang, Blake…” he then turned to Weiss. "Ice Queen."

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

Because you keep acting like one?

"It's really awesome that we get to be temporarily transferred to your school. Now, we can hang-out more! This is going to be an epic year, I can tell.” he said before gesturing to his companion "Anyway, never got a chance to formally introduce you to my old friend."

"Uhh, aren't libraries for reading?" Neptune reminded as he looked at Team RWBY's table.

"Thank you!" Ren exclaimed.

"Pancakes!" Nora followed.

Made me wonder why no one was telling us to be quiet, especially with Team RWBY's board game session.

"Shut up. Don't be a nerd." Sun playfully sneered.

"Ga-ga-gah! 'Intellectual', okay? Thank you.” he corrected. "I'm Neptune. Neptune Vasillias."

"So Neptune, where are you from?" Weiss asked with brow-raising interest.

"Haven.” he answered as he walks toward her. "And I don't believe I've caught your name, Snow Angel."

"Um, I'm Weiss." she said without a single semblance of her typical infuriation.

Oh, so it's okay when he calls you that. Didn't know it took blue hair and boyband-esque douchiness to have the privilege of calling her with a dumb nickname without earning her ire.  **[2]**

"Pleasure to meet you.” he complimented.

I rolled my eyes at the display of cheesy high-school romance in bloom as shifted my attention towards Sun and Blake.

"I never took you as the board game playing type," Sun commented.

"Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually." she said, standing up. "I'll see you guys later." And just like that, she immediately walked away without another word in typical Blake fashion.

We all look at her leave us in bewilderment until Nora broke the silence.

"Women." Nora shrugged.

"What's with her? I thought she brightened up after that night." Said a puzzled Sun.

"Honestly, I was asking the same thing," I replied, scanning the room to see she was already gone. What was really bothering her?

Sun looked at my team's table. "So… these are your teammates, am I right?"

"Yep. That's Team JNPR. There's Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora." I said as I gesture each teammate from left-to-right.

"Wait, Pyrrha? As in Pyrrha Nikos?!" Sun cried excitedly. "The four-time champion of the Mistral Regionals?"

"That's right." she nodded.

"Holy crap, it's an honor meet you!" Sun rested his hands at the table. "Folks at Haven talk about you a lot."

"So I've heard." Pyrrha fixed her bangs.

"Man, you were so cool when you beat that Mammoth guy. They say that no could beat him but we believed in you."

"Yeah, that was a fun match."

"Jaune, you're one lucky bastard to have her as a teammate.” he told me.

"I get that a lot," I replied.

We chatted for a while. Neptune filled Blake's spot at the board game and apparently had dominated everyone at the game and was declared as the ruler of Remnant, much to Yang's annoyance.

We dispersed with the duo after leaving the library. As me, my team and Team RW_Y were heading towards our respective dorms when Miss Goodwitch's voice suddenly called, putting all seven of us to a halt.

"Mr. Arc."

"Yes, professor?" I asked, turning to her rather nervously.

"Headmaster Ozpin would like to have a word with you."

Was this about the food fight at the mess hall? I thought. "Am I in trouble, ma'am?"

"I cannot say I know for sure, he only instructed me to summon you. You will have to find that out yourself." she answered.

I gulped before complying. "Okay, then. Lead away."

"Good. The rest of you can move along now." she said to the others before accompanying me to the interview room. While I was making my way there, all I could wonder was 'What does Ozpin want from me this time?'

**=o=**

  1. _Random Number Generator (occasionally nicknamed as the 'Random Numbers God'), a term used in gaming (whether digital or tabletop) that refers to the system that factors the player's odds and luck. Also used as an alternative term for dices._
  2. _I was actually annoyed when he called me that, but it was a time when I didn't want to spoil his interest of me._



* * *

 

I entered the dimly lit room, consisting only a window and a single table with a chair at each side, giving off an impression of a dark interrogation room—not really a place you want to be in.

"Sit here and wait for the headmaster," she instructed, gesturing toward the chair beside the window. "Stay until you are told to otherwise," she stated before making her leave.

I sat and waited for a few minutes for Ozpin to arrive. I tapped my fingers at the table in anxious anticipation, fearing at what he has to say. Like the first time I visited this room, it felt like going to the dentist. It's not every day that you get to talk to the Great & Powerful Ozpin; usually, the other professors handle the guidance counseling.

The door opened, revealing him as he walked toward me. "Ah, good to see you are finally here, Mr. Arc.” he went and took a seat. "I have been looking forward to this conversation for a while now."

"Why is that, Headmaster?" I asked politely.

"You will find out.” he said with a suspicious grin. "I see you are making yourself comfortable around here."

"It's a place I'll be staying for a few more years, why shouldn't I?"

"That is good. A student's well-being is very important. Without it, they would lack the morale to fight the Grimm.” he remarked before taking a sip of his drink. "You have been a lot impressive with your performance last semester. Of course, your theoretical abilities needs improvement, however, its combat training is what all that matters since that is primarily the reason why this academy exists, and it remains applicable to a Huntsman's career. But then again, why should I expect less from an Arc?” he asked theoretically.

"Just doing my responsibility as a Huntsman-in-training," I responded modestly as I nodded. "Though, I admit that I am still working on improving myself on other subjects."

"Now, remind me again. What made you choose to follow the path of a Huntsman?"

I was railroaded to it, that's what. "So I can fulfill my family's legacy and help those who can't help themselves. Be a hero like in the stories, and make the world a better place to live in." I lied as the best as I could, keeping a straight face, eye-contact, and in the right tone. But despite that, he doesn't seem to be convinced.

"That is a plausible, if somewhat of a commonplace answer. Your father told me the exact same answer when I asked him that question when he was your age. Not that I blame any of you. After all, Huntsmen should be aware that they are fighting for the world."

"What can I say? We're known for our altruism. I think it's destiny for us to help people."

He hummed. "Do you believe in destiny, Mr. Arc?"

I pondered at that question. "I don't really know. It's just that sometimes I think that some things were meant to happen." I answered.

"I can see where you are trying to convey. Fate works in mysterious ways, should such thing happen to exist. But tell me, are you doing this because you genuinely believe in your family values, or is it because that destiny tells you to?” he asked as he takes a sip of his drink.

"I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do. Yes, it's becoming a bit of a family tradition—but I've wanted to be a hero since I was a child, and it's my chance to prove myself worthy."

He slammed his mug at the desk after he was done drinking. "Are really you sure about that?” he asked in an alarmingly inquisitive tone. "I want to say I believe you, as you are giving answers with the heart of a true Huntsman, but I am afraid that you are not being truthful with me."

I was shocked by his sudden disbelief, albeit I made sure to display that as subtly as possible. "Headmaster, I don't exactly get how I was being untruthful. I answered as sincerely as I could."

He shut his eyes and shook his head. "Mr. Arc. You have an impressive amount of guile that it is even beneficial for your performance in the academy, but it's neither going to help you or me in this conversation."

"I don't think I follow, Headmaster," I asked, trying to remain as calm as possible while it was becoming increasingly apparent that he knows of my ulterior motives.

"All I am saying is that you should start answering me more honestly, Mr. Arc.” he raised one of his brows. "Are you not aware of how 'Great & Powerful' I am?"

I was willing to doubt that he knows of my façade and was bluffing, but by the mention of that nickname that he emphasized, I lost my breath and wasn't able to think. Even if I did, he already knew, so there was no point in trying to beguile him into thinking otherwise. I've been doing my best to maintain an image of someone they expected from me for everyone's own good, but Ozpin somehow managed to look past of it and knew that I wasn't being genuine with my feelings.

"Worry not, Jaune, your father and sisters used to give me the same nickname. I did not invade your private belongings, I can assure you that. I was only able to read you like a book, and while you successfully managed to fool others, nothing suspicious ever gets past me without me knowing.” he smiled, but in a way that says 'I got you now.' "If there's a time were we finally discuss this, it is now."

I sighed as I took off my metaphorical mask. I'm just glad that he didn't read through this journal, I could not imagine how I am going to handle the fact that someone managed to read it without my consent. "Fine, you got me. Just tell me what you want."

"The truth. I can see that there is something bothering you ever since I first interviewed you for your attendance. Feel free to speak your mind, this will not affect your disciplinary record nor will I try to expose you. It is a secret I am willing to keep; I only want nothing more than your honest answers."

"So you want the truth then? Well, here it is, I don't actually want to be a hero, and I didn't want to be a Huntsman either." I bluntly admitted. "Everything that led me to here was nothing short of unintentional."

"Unintentional? How unintentional? It is rather dubious to think that you managed to achieve such feats by accident.” he asked, putting his mug down the table.

"Remember that heist at Podunk, which made my debut? That was me trying to run away and failing. I had to defend myself from the Ursa that followed me after it ended up killing the bandits. When everyone saw what happened, they thought I was saving them, and I had to go with that, because saying anything otherwise wouldn't help."

"Then why did you allow the villagers to perceive you as something you think you are not, and allowed them to give you a reputation that you seem to be ashamed of?"

"What was I supposed to do? Tell them I was actually leaving them for dead just so I could live? Besides, you were already considering my entry prior to the incident."

"Ah, yes, I do remember first hearing about you when I discussed with your father for potential recruits. You were very young and was unskilled. Once you grew older, stronger and smarter, I knew you were ready whether you were willing or not. Your talents are unlike any other apart from your father, and there are very few individuals who can be claimed to have defeated Caiaphas Arc in a duel. Would I like to remind you that you ranked the top in last semester's freshmen combat training, second only to Pyrrha."

"It's a cruel world, especially if you live outside the kingdoms, I have to be prepared for anything. Even my sisters that did not attend any combat schools were trained. I just happened to take it more seriously than I should have." I explained. "Honestly, I don't think I'm that good. I just followed what my instincts told me to do."

"I am not surprised by that answer, Miss Belladonna gave the same explanation the night before the first semester ended. You must have quite the instincts then. Regardless of how actually talented you are in combat, whether you would admit or not, it is quite clear that you have been trained well enough to receive such grade in combat class.” he stated. "It begs to ask, is your façade really necessary? Why did you bother going to the trouble of pretending to be someone you perceive to be something else when in public? You could have easily behaved here the same way you act at your home."

"It's good for the team spirit, without it, I'd probably be dead by now. If they're going to view me as something of a paragon, I might as well act like one. One of the effective ways of being a leader is to be likable enough, and look how far we went with that."

"A decent answer. I am glad you are aware of the importance of teamwork even if you use them for selfish purposes,” he stated. "I am curious why did you suddenly decide to lose the interest of becoming a Huntsman once you started training with your father?"

"Let's just say I found out the world was not worth saving at all and that being a hero isn't what it was cracked up to be. Besides, there are plenty of people who could do the job better than I would, why not leave it to them?"

"I find that to be shallow to an extent.” he retorted. "Those very same people could be thinking the same way as you, and if they are convinced that they could not save the world, then who else would? Remnant needs Huntsmen, it does not matter if one seek money, fame, or any other desires, because without them, there would never be a world to speak of."

"There will always be Huntsmen, professor, and I don't think I'll ever be worthy of being called that. All I wanted to do was stay safe and survive."

"Jaune, a lot of people outside of your family believes in you, you just need to learn to believe in yourself. If you are unable to do that and continue to think that you are neither worthy nor capable of becoming a Huntsman, then I am going to have to drop you out, after all, you wanted to go back home, did you not?"

"Professor, as much as I wanted to leave and return to peace, I'm afraid that will end up staining the family name. So I'm determined to continue staying at Beacon, even if I don't want to."

"Very well, then I will mark you as a prodigy who no longer has to attend combat academy as your performance proves that is is no longer necessary; I will grant you your license early and you will be left at your own devices. That way, your family's honor will remain intact and you do not have to spend four more years in Beacon, you seemed to be already capable enough, so why even stay?"

"You can do that?" I asked skeptically.

"You will be surprised to know how much power I possess. This is a rare offer, Mr. Arc. Either you take it or continue to study at Beacon, it is your choice."

I have been fearing this for a while now, and it caught me off-guard that I have to face it this early. I really wanted to accept his offer, but I still have a team to lead, especially after I just won a food fight for them. Not to mention, everything about this screams 'test of character', I still don't believe that someone even as Great & Powerful as Ozpin could hand out licenses early like a bunch of cards. This could just be an elaborate use of reverse psychology for all I know. So, I guess the best decision was to accept that I have to endure Beacon for a long while.

In short, you already won, Ozpin.

"I appreciate it, professor, but I'll have to decline. As much as I want to accept it, I still have a team to look after, they just won't be the same without me. I can't just leave them and let them down."

"Are you really sure? You do not need to worry about your team, as the position will be filled by someone else. Is this not what you want, to be free of the dangers of combat school?"

"I do want it, but I have already decided to graduate by traditional methods. I already accepted that I'm going to be a Huntsman, whether I want to or not, and that's final."

Ozpin stared at me for a moment before humming and putting a smirk at his face. "For someone who claims to be a coward, you seem to hold a lot of courage when facing these types of problems—even going as far as to accepting four-years of rigorous training in a combat school. That is what I like about you, Jaune.” he remarked before grabbing the mug from the table and taking a sip. "I am impressed that you were able to continue spending your time here in Beacon when you could have easily requested to be dropped out, or if you are daring, get yourself expelled."

Yeah, this was my life now for a while, and I'm already getting used to it. The one thing left to do was not get killed in the process.

"You should not fear your enemies, Jaune. If anything, they should fear you. You are a lot more capable than you think you are.” he stood up and walked around the room.

"That'll only make them want to kill me more."

"True. But knowing you, you are never going to allow that to happen, am I correct?” he said as he took another sip.

I sighed and nodded. But even if I did survive large Grimm and terrorists, I still prefer to avoid these threats as much as possible.

"I am glad you made this decision. As for your public persona, I would advise you to maintain it. Ignorance is sometimes bliss, and we do not want to spoil the illusion of you being a charismatic hero, now do we?"

I raised my brow at Ozpin's consideration of upholding my masquerade. "What are you getting to?"

"What I was saying was I find it rather beneficial for you and your allies—so long as you continue to serve them as much as you like to serve yourself."

"I intend to. Just keep this between us."

"Mr. Arc. You may not like me and I frankly could not care less, but you can trust me on this one,” he vowed before he continued to drink his entire mug until it was empty.

"I just have one question," I stated.

"Speak."

"Why are we discussing this just now? You said you spoke to Blake right after what happened at the docks and the day before last semester ended, why didn't you ask me after then?"

"Good question. Originally I intend to have this discussion during that night, but I wanted to see how you would handle your first day in the second semester before I address your issues and give you a choice. I can see that you have made genuine bonds with your team and Team RWBY, which makes your decision to stay much more understandable.” he explained.

"Yeah, about that… Sorry for the mess hall earlier."

"No need for that. You are still young and you must cherish every minute of it. The damages you caused are easily repaired or replaced."

So, he really was watching me. Was he also to watching me during the missions I had during the break? Probably, because one day wasn't enough to satisfy his curiosity.

"That is all. It was nice speaking to you, Jaune. This conversation has been quite enlightening.” he concluded.

I stood out and puffed. I went to the exit and began to pull the door open before hearing him once again.

"One more thing. Your father is very proud of you. While he is indeed worried about your life—he believes in you. Try not to take that away from him."

I gave a dim nod, barely looking back to see him, then walked away.

* * *

 

Leaving the faculty building, I stared at the evening sky—thinking if staying here was the right decision. I just couldn't help but think it is, it would be too much of a selfish move to just leave after I just had fun with my friends. I still don't know what to think that Ozpin has been aware of my insecurities and actual motives since the beginning. Maybe as long as he keeps his promise of keeping it a secret, it shouldn't be much a problem, but I still cannot help but doubt.

Strolling around the Beacon courtyard, musing about what to do now that Ozpin knows, I decided to relax and just do the same thing I've always been doing. Ozpin evidently wanted me to stay, so there was no reason for him to expose me as a fraud, he even admits that he prefers this to stay that way.

I headed back to the dorms. Just when I thought I started to watch where I was going, I ended up colliding with a Haven student. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you." I apologized. She turned around, revealing her green eyes. She was very short (short enough to make Ruby and Weiss look tall.), her hair was black and she wore twin tails with white bows on each tail. She was just standing there, eerily smiling at me without a single word—and I could only stare back, confused with her expression and lack of communication.

"Oh, Nico, there you are! We told you not to wander around alone." One of the two other Haven students said as they were approaching her. The one who spoke was a dark-skinned girl whose hair is a light-green bob cut and had crimson red eyes, and the other was a boy with grey hair. "Look at who you just found." the former said as she looked at me.

I continue to stare speechlessly when another one of them arrived. This one had long black hair and amber colored eyes and spoke with a rather soothing voice. "Ah, yes, it looks like Nico has stumbled upon the partner of The Invincible Girl herself." she commented before speaking to me. "Jaune Arc, is it not?"

Just how many Haven students are going to recognize me from Pyrrha alone? As if my reputation wasn't bad enough, I can definitely see how Pyrrha feels every time someone recognizes her. "That's me!" I said with a grin as I swung my arm. "Sorry for bumping to your friend here. I get lost at my own thoughts when walking sometimes."

"It's okay, I'm sure Nico here thinks so too. She's a  _sweet,_  if a very quiet girl, especially around strangers." she replied. I noticed that she subtly emphasized 'sweet' for some reason, it's probably just me. "Where are my manners? My name is Cinder, and these are my teammates—Mercury, Emerald, and of course, Nico." she gestured at her, who silently waved at me.

"And we're Team Cinnamon!" the gray-haired boy named Mercury said with a grin. "Spelt C-M-E—Oww!" His gut was elbowed by Emerald before he was able to finish.  **[1]**

"We heard some interesting things about you. Is it true that you were a local hero who killed a Vacuan bandit lord and Ursa who were both terrorizing a town?" Cinder asked.

"Well, I don't mean to brag, but I'll be lying if I said that wasn't me." I humbly answered. "I was just doing it for the good people of that town. They didn't deserve to be attacked like that."

"Handsome, polite, strong, courageous and modest. My, my, that's a very rare combination nowadays, it's no wonder why people talk a lot about you." Cinder remarked with interest.

I could only blush as an admittedly gorgeous woman compliments me. When she was about to seductively put a hand on my cheek, my senses quivered and I automatically grabbed her wrist, causing her to frown and alerting her companions.

"Sorry. My instincts are acting out." I apologized as I let go of her of her arm, calming down her teammates behind her.

"Strong grip." she shook her arm. "I like it..." she said, smiling again. "We should be off. We were heading to our dorms when Nico wandered off. I'm glad that she did now we were finally able to meet you face-to-face."

I continue to get flush as she stared at me with her alluring looks. "Well, it's nice to meet you too."

"Looking forward to seeing you in action, handsome." she bid me farewell, parting with three of her teammates.

"Yeah, of course, and welcome to Beacon!" I said as I watch them leave. I sighed and went back to my own dorm.

Exchange students, a food fight, and a talk with the Great & Powerful Ozpin; meeting fangirls from Vacuo, Sun's friend with a 'cool dude' attitude that somehow manages to appeal Weiss of all people, and this strange team. This semester just keeps getting interesting by the minute, and I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

**=o=**

  1. _The team name was created from an unfortunate result from the team name generator, and they were stuck with it. Needless to say none of them like it—preferring their unofficial name, Team CMSN (Crimson), although Mercury Black likes to tease his teammates about the name._



* * *

 

 


	7. Blake Ops

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 2/3/2019: Cleared a couple of plotholes.

 

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Blake Ops**

* * *

 

> _"Treat people like animals and they'll start acting like animals, then they'll be remembered as animals."_
> 
> **_-Adria Shepherd, 'Fall of the Old Fang'_ **

 

Nothing says another day at Beacon than having my dorm ceiling be the first thing I see after waking up. Classes were resuming today, so I had to start preparing myself and take them seriously since this semester was said to be more difficult than the last.

Classes were the same as the last semester—with the same respective teachers. One of the few differences is that the subjects were expanded. Grimm Studies now teaches survival lessons and Grimm biology—even then, it was still mostly about Professor Port's tall tales, which I still doubt are true, if not exaggerated. History & Social Studies now have economics and Remnant geology. Dust Studies now teach the more advanced use of dust. Combat Class was more or less the same, physical exercises, weapon maintenance, combat tactics, the occasional swimming and of course everyone's favorite—sparring.

The day ended after Port's class, which was rather slow because one, its Port's class, what do you expect? Two, being the last class for the day while anticipating for it to be over dramatically slows down time; the fact that its two hours doesn't help.

Since I vowed myself to have a better study ethic, I tried going to the library after class to study what lessons that were taught today and relax once I'm done, maybe go to Vale and watch that new Spruce Willis movie everyone won't shut up about.  **[1]**  However, there was a change of plan after meeting with Sun and his friend, Neptune Vasila-whatever on my way there.

"Yo, Jaune, what's my favorite knight-in-shining-armor doing?" Sun greeted.

"Oh hey, Sun, Neptune. Just going through today's notes. How's Beacon treating you?"

"It's nice! I could get used to a place like this." Sun answered before grabbing my shoulder to get me near him. "So listen, we kinda need your help."

"With what exactly?"

"I have been… let's just say, 'observing' Blake and her team and by the looks of it, they seem to be very focused on something, and I don't think it's related to school, because seriously, who cares about what a Beowolf's inside look like?"

"Yeah, boring~," Neptune commented.

"Weiss would." I sneered and snickered at my own joke. Though to be fair, Grimm biology does have some useful pointers, such as telling you where the Grimm's weak and vulnerable parts are located, if only they didn't make it sound dull. "I noticed that too, I'm sure it's nothing serious, it's probably just team business."

"I want to think that too, but they seem to be so awfully quiet outside each other. I feel like they're up to something."

"And as gentlemen, it is our obligation to lend a helping hand on these ladies at whatever they are planning," Neptune said.

If you really consider yourself a gentleman, you would have respected their own business. "Well, whatever it is, I think they'll be fine without us."

"I know, but Blake's being really stubborn a lot lately. I've been watching her for the whole day and something's going on that isn't normal."

And you're being stubborn yourself.  **[2]**  "Sun, are you stalking Blake? That's really creepy, man. Keep that up and maybe I'll start stealing her for myself." I sarcastically stated.

"What? No! Listen Jaune, I'm doing this as a concerned friend. I'm telling you—I think it's something about the White Fang. Do you really think she'd just stop after the docks? If she's still going after something as serious as them, then she'll need all the help they could get. I don't care if she and her team are badass chicks, going after those psychos is borderline suicidal even if you know what you're doing."

I sighed, he's right, Blake really needs to let go with the White Fang, and stop provoking them. Otherwise, they will continue to bother her in return. "Fine, but I'm doing this for Blake, not for you."

"Awesome! Now follow me."

I followed the duo to the back of the dorms. We looked at Team RWBY's conveniently open dorm window in the fourth level on the building. Glancing at the nearby tree, I exactly knew what Sun was thinking.

"Are you sure about this, Sun?" I asked. "You know, we could just knock on their door like normal people."

"Yeah, I know, but that's the boring way, and we'll doing it my way—the Sun way!"

Oh, I get it.

"Now follow my lead!" he then effortlessly climbed on the tree and leaped to the level of the story where Team RWBY's dorm was located. He hanged back there and waited for us.

I had experience climbing trees back home, so it wasn't much of a problem, but I could still remember falling off one when I was younger and I didn't have aura back then; it was an unpleasant memory. Luckily, I did manage to make it and got to the ledge of the building. The ledges were a foot a tall, and it was rather high, so I remained still and hugged the walls tightly, doing my best not to look down while waiting for Neptune to follow.

"Hey, are you coming?" Sun asked.

"Just give me a sec." It took him some time for him to climb the tree. He visibly had some difficulty, but since he was training to be a Huntsman, he did manage to do it eventually.

We then carefully moved next to Team RWBY's dorm window, it being open made it easier to eavesdrop on them while the three of us continue to hold still at the ledges.

"Right! Everyone remember their roles?" Asked Ruby's high-pitched voice.

"You and I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem." A voice proudly uttered, unmistakably coming from you-know-who.

"The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning." Blake said, which indeed confirmed that she was going after the White Fang.

"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale," Yang said. "Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard."

"Great! We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we found." Ruby said. "Let's do this!"

"Yeah!" Sun said as he jumped and hung his tale at the top of the window frame.

"Sun!" Blake shouted.

"How did you get up there?" Yang asked.

"Oh, it's easy—I do it all the time." he answered.

"You do what?!" Weiss yelled, apparently misinterpreting his statement in the wrong way. (Though if you ask me, it doesn't sound far-fetched.)

"I climb trees all the time!" he clarified as he flipped inside the dorm room, giving us the room adjust near the window. "So, are we finally getting back at that Torchwick guy?"

" _We_  are going to investigate the situation... as a  _team_ ," Blake stated.

While I'm glad that this team is finally getting along and are working together; normally, I'd let them be, but I was still not a fan of their decision to attract more trouble from the White Fang with just a four of them. So I bluffed them into letting us help; it worked before, it worked again, seeing how they couldn't resist getting my help the other day.

"You hear that, Sun? This is team business. Now let's go back before we start bothering them even more." I said leaning at the dorm's window. I saw that they were wearing different outfits from their usual ones. Yang, in particular, was wearing a more relatively modest apparel, while still exposing her thighs and cleavage, because why wouldn't she.

"Jaune, you're here too?" Ruby asked. "On second thought, you guys are welcome to help!"

Got 'em.

"Hold on! I thought we agreed not to involve friends if we don't have to?" Weiss questioned.

"I said we don't have to force anyone to help, but if they are willing, then why stop them? Besides, the more the merrier." Ruby responded.

"I'll have to agree with her on this." Blake backed her up. "The White Fang's ploy could be even bigger than we anticipated that we'll need all the necessary assistance, especially someone like Jaune, he's strong, smart and brave; I haven't seen him lost to anyone yet."

I don't know if I should be flattered by that. I was only considered strong because I had to prepare for the worst, smart because I needed to take everything to my advantage when possible, and brave just simply being not true, no matter how many times Nora called me a fearless leader.

Weiss sighed. "Whatever you say then."

"That's great!" Sun said. "Hey Jaune, Neptune, I think you could get in now."

Finally, I thought, I was waiting when I would stop hanging in this those tight ledges.

"How did you guys even get up there?" Yang asked after Neptune and I got through the window and into her team's dorm room.

"We have our ways," Neptune replied.

"You know you could just knock." Weiss pointed out.

"Yeah, it's not like I suggested that earlier or anything." I scoffed before turning to Blake. "Blake, you need to let the White Fang go. If you keep lingering on the past, it will continue to haunt you. Just let the authorities do their thing against them."

"Look, as much as I want to move on from them, I can't help but to think that the White Fang are planning on something and no one is doing anything about it. The police just aren't reliable; if no one is going to stop them then who else will?!" she retorted.

"Jaune, I understand what your trying to do, but Blake obviously isn't going to stop no matter how hard you try to convince her. Trust us, we tried, so it's best you'll just let her be for now." Weiss stated.

I put on my palms on my face and puffed. I guess it couldn't be helped. Walking out of here would only make me look like a dick when I agreed to help out, so I'll just have to go with whatever they're trying to do. I heard it's just an investigation, so how bad could it be? "Fine. So what the plan?"

"Oh right. Weiss and I are going to the CCT to read some records, Blake is going to some recruitment meeting thing with the White Fang, and Yang is going to the shady part of town to ask some questions." Ruby replied before facing Neptune. "Neptune, you will go with us, seeing how you were smart enough to beat us yesterday, you should be able to help us with the records. That and, Weiss seems to like you."

"Hey!" Weiss nervously blushed while Neptune winked at her.

"Nerd." Sun sneered.

"Intellectual~," Neptune insistively responded.

"Sun, you will go with Blake, because with you being a faunus, you are sure to fit in." Ruby continued before turning at me. "And you will go with Yang, since you are so good at fighting, she's going to need some extra muscle."

"Yeah! Let the Blonderhood assemble!" Yang remarked as she went beside me and put an arm around my shoulder.

Oh hell no, I am not going to Vale's criminal underground with Yang of all people, I thought. That would mean guaranteed trouble and more terrible puns from her, and I was not having it.

"How about I go with you and Weiss? I had experience with examining records and catalogs and done some investigating in the past, so looking into some papers won't be that hard for me." I suggested to Ruby. I don't care if I had to go through a tedious process of scrutinizing records for hours, I'm better off fighting boredom once again than risking my life by visiting a place full of thugs with a feisty girl with a hair-trigger temper.

"Unfortunately for you, it has been decided." Weiss asserted with arms crossed and her eyes closed. "Neptune will be coming with us to the CCT and his assistance will do nicely."

"Hey, I actually don't mind trading places. The shady part of Vale sounds more exciting than looking at a bunch of papers—I'll leave that one to the experts..." Neptune chimed in, much to Weiss' shock and chagrin.

"Well, hop in," I said, giving each other a low-five as we swap our positions. "Sorry Yang, looks like the Blonderhood would have to assemble some other day."

"That's a shame. I was hoping to see the not-so-wimpy 'Vomit-Man' show more of his sick skills." Yang said. "Eh, there's always next time. The new guy can't be that bad." she continued before grabbing Neptune's collar. "I still haven't forgiven you for yesterday."

Neptune just nervously chuckled and grinned.

"I for one, don't mind Jaune joining us," Ruby remarked to a disappointed Weiss.

"Shut up, Ruby."

"Just one problem," I stated before turning to Blake. "Are you sure they won't recognize you? The White Fang did find out who you were the second they saw you at the docks."

"Why do you think I'm wearing a different outfit then? Besides, I'll be wearing a mask, and it's not like I'm the only faunus girl with black hair." she answered.  **[3]**

"Fair point." Well, that's not a bad idea; those new clothes look good on them anyway.

"Alright is everyone all set?" Ruby asked everyone on the room before we all nodded. "Let's do this then!"

**=o=**

  1. _That film was rather controversial since it depicted Spruce Willis' character as a human vigilante, who kills criminals he comes across, including faunus. It was accused of promoting fascism and violence against faunus, with the White Fang threatening violence to theaters that screen the film. It should be noted that the film was not well-received by critics, either due to the controversy, threats from faunus extremists, or the quality of the film itself, or the combination of the above._
  2. _Look who's talking._
  3. _Blake was supposed to be the only one wearing different clothing during the investigation, but Ruby and Yang liked the idea of wearing different outfits during the occasion and had me follow them even though it wasn't necessary for us._



* * *

The Vale CCTS Tower wasn't far ahead, in fact, it was a very brief walk—since it turned out, it was not only on the campus, but it was in the Beacon Tower all along. I thought it would be located somewhere in the city where it would be much more accessible.  **[1]**

I still can't believe that this was the very same tower whose temporal unavailability prevented anyone from calling (real) help from Podunk that day.

"Wow~! I forgot how big the tower looks up close!" Ruby squealed.

"You should see the one in Atlas." Weiss added.

"That was the first one, right?"

"Correct. Atlas developed the Cross Continental Transmit System to allow the four kingdoms to communicate with one another. It was their gift to the world after the Great War."

Thanks for the tour guide, it's not like I crammed history to learn that for the fiftieth time.  **[2]**

"Oooh, look at me! My name's Weiss! I know facts! I'm rich!" Ruby mocked.

"Like yah, I'm such a classeh womahn. Don't make fun of meh 'cause I'm perfect and your not, ya' dolts." I followed doing my best impression of a snobbish valley girl, causing Ruby to giggle.

"Why does everyone think I keep calling people that?! I only called Ruby that like only once on the first day!" Weiss angrily remarked. "Let's not forget, the only reason we're here is because you like the tower so much! We could have just as easily made a call from the library."

"I know, but it's so cool! Ooh, I'm going to take a picture!" she said, pulling out her scroll. Unfortunately, it slipped and ended up landing in front of someone interesting.

"You dropped this." A familiar voice said, which belonged to none other than the eccentric wonder-girl from the docks two weeks ago.

"Penny?!" Ruby screamed, shocking her the moment she recognized our faces.

"Oh, it's you," Weiss said.

"Where have you been? We haven't seen you since that night at the docks!" Ruby told her.

"I'm still not sure that you're responsible for saving the shipment that night." Weiss offhandedly remarked.

"Weiss, not now." Ruby rebuked.

"S-Sorry. I think you're confused." Penny said before making a hiccup that caused her to throw the scroll which Ruby was able to catch.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"It's okay. I'm fine! It's just a minor hiccup." Penny replied before making another hiccup. "Uh... I've got to go!" she said as she bolted away from us.

"What was that about?" Weiss questioned.

"Beats me," I answered.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," Ruby said before going to where Penny was headed. "You go make your call! I'll meet up with you later."

"Wait!" Weiss called her.

Since Penny was a part of the incident of the docks and was a rather major player during that event, she was technically part of this case. There was more to her than meets the eye, and I have a lot of unanswered questions from her.

"And where do you think you're going?" Weiss asked as she saw me following Ruby's trail.

"I'm going after them. I still need to know what's up with her. Go ahead, we'll meet you later." I told her as I continue following the two.

"I thought you came with me so you could help me with the records!" she said as I go further from her. "Jaune!" she yelled before I heard her groan in defeat. Well, I never wanted to stay with her so we could stare at papers for hours anyway.

I spotted the two below the steps. Penny was noticeably trying to brush her off without being rude. Ruby continued to follow her, sliding down the trails and stopped her from walking.

"Look, I don't know what's wrong, but you have to listen to me! Those guys we fought at the docks, we think they're up to something big, something bad! I need you to tell me what happened to you that night! Please...as a friend"

I took the steps down and Penny turned around and saw me. She looked anxious and doesn't know what to say.

"It's okay. You're not in trouble. We just need some things cleared up." I assured.

Penny just stared at me until Ruby held her shoulder and told her, "You can trust him; Jaune is the nicest guy I know."

She looked down and took a few seconds to ponder. "Friends…" she turned back to Ruby and told her. "It isn't safe to talk here."

"So where exactly can you tell us then?" Ruby asked.

"Please follow me." she said as we complied.

She led us both into a Bullhead. Apparently, whatever she has to say, it was sensitive enough to be heard at a crowded place like Beacon. I couldn't care much because I have a desire to know what's with her.

There's something strange about this girl that she is not telling us.

**=o=**

  1. _There were already several communication stations around the city that were connected to the CCT so that people don't have to necessarily travel to the Beacon Tower in order to use the communications._
  2. _You didn't have the best memory when it came to history, so it was my pleasure._



* * *

We took a short walk around downtown. We stopped at Café Noire, the very same place where Blake explained everything to me. Talk about déjà vu. I was once again inquiring information from a strange, mysterious girl, who I just have to confront after she fled from her friends.

Penny and I were standing outside the café, waiting for Ruby as she ordered us some drinks.

"So Penny, where are you from?" I asked.

"Atlas."

"Atlas, huh? Nice place. Pretty advanced, especially with all the neat weapons and robots they are making."

"Yes. Precisely…" she said with noticeable grief.

There was definitely something bothering her. She wasn't being the like the cheery-girl who managed to slaughter an entire platoon of White Fang troopers without losing her smile. "Hey, you can tell me what's wrong. Don't worry, I'm not gonna force you if you feel uncomfortable about it."

She looked down for a second before asking. "Jaune. Has your father been sometimes overprotective of you?"

I took a deep breath at that question. "Yeah. He's a bit paranoid. Can't really blame him, we live outside the kingdoms; that's why he trained me enough to be qualified for Beacon. His training was tough, I admit, but I get what he was trying to do, he's my dad after all; he was the first person I look up to when I needed someone to talk to. If it wasn't for him, I'd probably be dead by now."

"Sounds like your father loves you very much." she remarked, her expression brightening.

"Of course he does; what kind of father would he be if he doesn't" I rhetorically asked. "Anyway, what can you tell me about your father?"

"He's a brilliant man, one of Atlas' finest scientists even."

I raised my brow in interest. "Cool. Did he make your weapons?"

"Correct. They're still mostly prototypes, however. There are still a lot of improvements to be made before they could display their full potential." she nodded.

So you're telling me that those crazy flying blades attached to her backpack that could blast lasers strong enough to cut Bullheads in half were only prototypes? Damn. Must be one heck of a genius. Can't imagine what the final version would be like. "That's really neat. I can see why your dad is considered to be one of Atlas' top minds." I complimented. "By the way, mind telling us why you just suddenly left us at docks without a single farewell. I'm not mad is mad you, no one is, trust me—I'm just really curious."

"I really want to answer but I—"

"I'm back~!" Ruby yelled as she left the café with a drink carrier containing three cups of coffee. "So what did I miss?"

"Oh, nothing really. Well, other than the revelation that Penny's weapons were prototypes." I stated.

"They're just prototypes?! That's awesome! So you're telling me that her weapons could still be better?!"

Oh boy, it appeared that I have triggered her inner weapon-enthusiast. Penny seemed to become anxious so I had to respond in her behalf. "Pretty much."

Ruby noticed Penny's expression and apologized. "Oh, I must have made you a bit nervous. Sorry about that, I just get too excited on cool weapons that's all. Here have a drink."

"No thanks, it's fine. My father does not allow me to take hot drinks." Penny declined.

"Come on, it can't be that bad. Coffee helps ease your mind; you look like you could use one." Ruby urged.

"I'm okay Ruby, really. You don't have to."

"That's a bummer… More coffee for me then!"

"I'd be careful with those if I were you," I said as I took mine from the carrier. I instinctively can't trust energetic girls with caffeine much nowadays.

She snickered. "Relax Jaune, I'm not like Nora."

Not really, but close enough, I thought as I took her word with a grain of salt.

We went for a stroll at the sidewalks, which is when Ruby started asking questions regarding the docks incident while drinking two cups of coffee.

"So, Penny. Do you know anything about those guys we fought at the docks a couple of weeks back? Namely Torchwick and the White Fang." Ruby asked.

"I wish I could help you, Ruby, but I don't know anything about those men." she answered.

"Well, what happened to you that night? We were all together, and then you just disappeared! Were you kidnapped?"

"That's a little too far, don't you think?" I remarked.

"Oh, no! Nothing like that!" Penny responded

"Then where did you go?" Ruby inquired.

"I've never been to another kingdom before. My father asked me not to venture out too far, but… Oh, you have to understand, my father loves me very much… He just worries a lot."

"Believe me, I know the feeling." Ruby chimed.

"Ditto," I added before puffing. "Well, that's what fathers do."

"But why not let us know you were okay?" Ruby continued asking.

"I... was asked not to talk to you… or Jaune… or Weiss… or Blake… or Yang. Anybody, really."

"Sounds like we upset your dad. Sorry, Penny." I apologized.

"No, it wasn't my father—" she rectified before a voice caught her attention. We followed to see to a corner overlooking a public announcement conducted by a hologram of a man in a white military suit, unmistakably Atlesian.  **[1]**

"The AK-130 has been a standard security model of Remnant for several years—and they have done a fine job. Wouldn't you agree? Wouldn't you agree?" the hologram said followed by an applause from an audience as the robots behind him bowed.

"But, the kingdom of Atlas is a kingdom of innovation, and 'fine'... Well, that's just not good enough, is it?" he continued as he open vertical sliding doors, showing a new batch of robots that were sleeker and whiter compared to the older ones that were grey and glossy. "Presenting... the Atlesian Knight-200!" the new robots stepped down and stomped on the older models as the crowd gave a round of applause.

"Smarter, sleeker, and admittedly, a little less scary." he said as the robots gave a few poses, earning a few laughs from the audience. "These models will become active later this year, but they won't be alone! Now, the Atlesian Military has always supported the idea of removing men from the dangers of the battlefield."

I don't know about that, but the last time I heard someone leaving everything to machines, it did not go well.

"However, there are still many situations that will undoubtedly require... a human touch.

"Ruby… Jaune…" Penny called while Ruby was apparently engrossed by the announcement.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"I think we should go somewhere else…."

"Hang on for a moment, I like where this is going!" Ruby urged.

"So, our kingdom's greatest minds, in cooperation with the Schnee Dust Company—are proud to introduce... the Atlesian Paladin!"

A large hologram of a two-legged mech straight from a sci-fi movie appeared. Atlas was always known for their impressive and innovative technology, but even then, they still never cease to amaze me with their inventions. That robot is pretty freaking awesome; it would be a dream to ride on one of those things.

"Now, we couldn't have him here for you today, but these mechanized battle suits will be seen defending the borders of our kingdom within the year!"

"No way…" I said, astounded while Ruby was just as understandably impressed

"Can we go now?" Penny asked as she stepped back.

A couple Atlesian soldiers started looking at our direction, one of them pointed at us while the other radioed his comms. "Uh, are they looking at us?" I asked as I turned back and saw Penny running.

"Penny? Wait! Where are you going?" she asked before we looked back and saw the soldiers sprinting toward us. We dropped all of our coffees and ran, following Penny across the street and into an alleyway.

What a waste of good coffee.

"What was that about?" Ruby asked me as we did our best to catch up with Penny.

"I don't know!" I told her, but if my assessments prove me right, then she must have been a V.I.P. or some sort judging that his father is considered to be a brilliant scientist and that she was not the type of person to commit a felony of some kind. "Maybe, we should reason with them!"

"Are you kidding?!"

"Hear me out; I don't think she's in trouble. They're just worried about her or something."

"What do you mean?"

"What I was saying was, they're not here to arrest her or anything like that, and they just want to escort her because she's someone important to them."

"Well, whatever the reason, it looks like she doesn't want to get caught yet!"

We kept her as she ran across the street and went into another alley. The two soldiers were slowed down after they almost got hit by a passing car, giving us more distance between them.

We were able to get near Penny while the two Atlesians continued to chase us. We then noticed two paths as we continued to make our way to the alley.

"Split up!" she commanded before I was able to argue.

She and Penny went to the left while I went to the right. The Atlesians did the same, with one of them chasing me as I continued to evade them.

I put on my hood, not that it would make much of a difference, but I was sure they'll forget me once this is done. After all, they were after Penny and not us; they shouldn't really bother much with dumb kids like us.

I went through an apartment's back door. I noticed a janitor's closet near the buildings main entrance, so I opened the front door to make it look like I went through there before hiding inside the closet. I peeked out and saw that I managed to trick the soldier into going out the front door.

I remained inside until I was sure that the soldier was gone outside a hundred-yard radius from where I was at. A few seconds of staying still in the closet, I heard my scroll vibrate, I took it out and saw that Pyrrha was trying to call me. I didn't want to ignore her call so I went upstairs and answered, the Atlesian should have given up since I was irrelevant and wasn't worth his time; surely, his partner must have called him from backup by then.

"Jaune Arc speaking."

"Jaune, where are you? I thought you said you'd study today."

"Yeah, I'm going to have to postpone that, Team RWBY suddenly asked me to help them with something…important," I explained

"How important exactly?" Pyrrha asked.

"Important-ish important?"

"Is it as important as the last time you went with Blake?" she inquired suspiciously.

"Look it's nothing like that." Not yet anyway. "It's just some sort of school project. I have some experience with what they needed, so I took up the task."

"Jaune, if Team RWBY have a school project, then we should have one too since we're basically in the same class unless I'm missing something, which I doubt I did because I remained attentive in class. Are you hiding something?"

"Okay, maybe it's not a school project, but it's important nonetheless, plus I'm trying to keep them out of trouble," I told her as I look through the apartment's window and saw an ambulance and a few marked cop cars quickly passing by, that was when I heard my scroll's text tone and saw a message from Ruby telling me that I should immediately meet her at her marked location. Oh boy, don't tell me you and Penny had anything to do with those emergency vehicles.

"Well, just don't take too long. This place is rather hectic without you…" she said before I heard Nora's screaming.

"The great tech-heresy is coming upon us! The machines are achieving free-will! Their machine spirits are being corrupted! They are now about to initiate the subjugation of all organic life! Ren, quick! Get the EMPs. I refuse to be enslaved by a bunch of walking toasters!"

"Nora! Calm down! There isn't any robot uprising." Ren audibly tried to tell her.

"That's what they what you to think! Lisa Lavender is an A.I. I tell you; they control the news!"

"We mixed up the diet soda with the regular ones…" Pyrrha sighed.

I made a muffled groan as I shook my head. "Put me to her, I'll handle this."

"Okay." she obliged and put the scroll near Nora, which is evident because Nora's screaming became much more audible.

"Nora, this is Jaune. As your Fearless Leader, I command you to calm down at once!"

"Ha! Nice try, tin can, but your fancy voice simulators are not going to fool me! We will remain defiant to the end, for we have endured countless ages being the under threat of such monstrous predators, and your revolt will be seen as nothing more as another failed attempt at destroying humanity!"

I put my free hand on my face. I'd be impressed by that if she wasn't on a sugar rush right now. "Nora… just, please… stop it." I said in my natural tone that she usually hear.

"Oh, it's really you! Best of luck out there, you see a robot? Smash it until their processors are in itty-bitty-tiny pieces! They cannot be reasoned with, they cannot be bargained with, and they will destroy anything made out of flesh, so you better be careful."

"I will, Nora, just please don't wreck the dorm."

"They are watching~!"

"Look, whatever you're doing, just hurry back," Pyrrha told me.

"I'll try," I replied. "See you later."

Geez, I was not expecting that, Nora can be a lot of things, but being a robophobic conspiracy theorist of some kind was not the first thing to come to mind.

I exited the apartment and ran through the same alley until I arrived at Ruby's marked location. I saw a crowd near a truck that has its front broken at the streets while it was being towed. By the looks of it, no one was seriously injured; the driver was being interviewed by a police officer who was writing down his notes.

What the hell exactly happened here? I thought. My other question was, wasn't the driver the same person who I sold my loot to? Something tells me this was neither my first nor second encounter with him.

"Psst. Over here." A voice called out. I looked around until I saw a half-opened dumpster before Ruby got out of it.

"Ruby? What are you doing in there?"

"It's complicated," she stated, dusting off the trash sticking in her outfit.

"Where's Penny?" I asked as she was nowhere to be found.

"She went with the soldiers." she answered. "You were right, they were not there to hurt her. They just wanted to make sure she was just safe, that's all."

"Well, that's a bit of a bummer. At least we know she's fine." I remarked before making a question. "Care to explain what's with the truck?"

"Oh yeah…that… uhm…" she stuttered, which all but says that she had something to do with it.

"I swear! I saw her stop it with her bare hands!" A pedestrian yelled out while Ruby was still trying to come up with an answer.

I folded my arms and continued to stare at her before she finally made a response. "She used...umm...her semblance! Yeah, that's right! Her semblance is super strength…which explains how she pulled that bullhead the other day!"

I gave her a puzzled look before I hesitantly bought her word. Something was not adding up, but it sounded too plausible to be a lie. I guess there was something I'm better off not knowing. **[2]**

"Is there anything else I should know?" I further inquired.

"Well, there's…uhh…"

"There's what?"

She began to shake her head. "Nothing forget I asked."

"Well, okay then."

She then looked back at the street. The crowd was dispersing, and the tow-truck carrying the damaged vehicle was leaving. "We should get out of here."

I nodded to her and we walked out of the area and was now strolling onto the Valian sidewalks.

"So, what now?"

**=o=**

  1. _General Ironwood was the one who was doing the address. As usual, while Jaune heard of him via some of Professor Oobleck's lessons, he still wasn't able to recognize him. Ruby, meanwhile, recognized the General when Penny mentioned him to her._
  2. _Some of you may be already aware of it, whether because you witnessed it first hand or read/heard about it, but I am not going to ruin the suspense of those who don't until it is revealed to Jaune much later in the journal._



* * *

_Editorial Note: As usual, to provide a wider content to the narrative, I am going to place the other pairs' perspective here, starting with Yang and Neptune. Unlike most other excerpts, the following was originally an audio recording that is being presented in a transcript format._

Neptune's Audio Logs: Investigating the Club with Yang (Transcript) 

**Neptune:**  Ahem. So, yeah it was a pretty crazy night. It kind of sucks that I didn't get to see most of it. Hell, we didn't even do much; Sun admitted that we might as well not be there at all. At least the experience was fun, and bringing that Jaune guy and having him go with Ruby and Weiss turned out to be a really good idea, even if we got a little trouble with the cops because of the damages and stuff that we have to perform community service for three days.

Anyway, we got to the club via Yang's pretty cool motorcycle. Since Vale's a pretty big city even for the speed of Yang's bike, it was already dark when we got there.

_(Audio cuts during the duo's arrival at the club.)_

_(Sound of a motorcycle's engine stopping.)_

**Yang:**  Come on, my friend's right in here!  _(Audible club music in a distance.)_

 **Neptune:**  Cool~  _(Shakes off the dizziness.)_  And where exactly is... here?

 **Yang:** Just a club that I used to hang out one time—the same night I got banned. It was a pretty wild night.

 **Neptune:** You were banned the first time you came here?

 **Yang:** Yup, still am. But I don't give a flip, and they ain't gonna do jack about it.

 **Neptune:** You're the one to talk.

 **Yang:** ( _To the bouncers.)_  Hey, there you two! What're your names again?! Bongo? Dessie?

_(Sounds of the bouncers' panicking and doors shutting can be heard.)_

**Yang:**  Aww~ they weren't that shy before.

 **Neptune:** Looks like they don't really like you.

 **Yang:** Eh, who can blame them? They don't have the guts to face a woman like me.  _(Grunts as she tried to open the door.)_ Oh, so they wanna play that game.  _(Cocks gauntlets.)_  You might want to stand back.

 **Neptune:**  Wait, you're not doing what I think—

 **Yang:**   _(Grunts as she summons an explosion.)_

 **Neptune:** …you're doing.

_(Club music becomes more audible as the duo enters.)_

**Yang:**  Guess who's back!

_(Guns clicking. Club music suddenly starts breaking out until it eventually stops.)_

**Neptune:**  Yeah, so could you define 'friend' for me?

 **Man 1:**  Stop, stop! Nobody shoot!  _(Footsteps)_ Blondie, you're here…why?

 **Yang:**  You still owe me a drink.  _(Fading footsteps)_

 **Neptune:**  Whoa, what a woman. ( _Pauses as he notices a pair of girls.)_ 'Sup?

 **Girls:** _(Simultaneously)_  Hmph. Whatever. ( _The two audibly walks away.)_

 **Neptune:** _(Chuckling as he started walking through the club.) (To a triad member.)_ Nice place.

 **Man 2:** Whatever, kid. Keep an eye on your girlfriend.

 **Neptune:** _(Stammering)_  Right…yeah…of course.  _(Whispering)_ This is pretty awesome. I know Yang's a ton of fun, but I didn't know she's this much of a daredevil.

 **Yang:** Looks like you still have this place up and running, Junior. I'm surprised to know that people still come to this dump after that crazy dance-off we had.

 **Man 1 ('Junior'):** Just cut to the chase, Blondie. What the hell do you want?!

 **Yang:**  Remember Torchwick? The guy with the bowler hat? Don't try to lie, I saw you talk to him last time I visited.

 **Junior:** Heh, Torchwick. I'm afraid you came to the wrong place. I know who he is, I'm just not buddies with him. We made one deal and that's it. End of story.

 **Yang:** Bullshh—crap, you're obviously not telling us something!

 **Junior:** You're wasting your time here, Blondie. Seriously, I don't know what's he up to today nor do I give a damn.

 **Yang:** Then can you at least tell me where the last time you've seen him?

 **Junior:**  For the last fucking time, I don't know!

 **Yang:**  How can you not know?

 **Junior:**  I haven't talked to him! I haven't even seen him since the night you first came in here. He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them  _ever came back_.  **[1]**

 **Neptune** : ( _Talking to himself.)_ It appears we have an uncooperative suspect here. It's time to unleash my inner detective. ( _Goes to the table and slammed it, knocking over a glass cup)_  So, where did they go?

 **Junior:**  What kind of stupid question is that? They never came back! ( _He turns back to Yang_ ) Who is this guy?

 **Yang:**  Don't worry about him, worry about me if I don't find out what I want!

 **Junior:**  I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them.  _(Suddenly yelling.)_  Which is something I can relate to!

 **Man 3:** _(In a distance)_  Hey!

 **Yang:**  Come on, Neptune.

 **Neptune:**  We get everything we need?

 **Yang:**  Well, we got everything we can. Hopefully, the rest of the team is having better luck.

 **Neptune:** You got banned from this place? Man, you're a wild chick.

 **Yang:** It's what I do.

**=o=**

  1. _You can thank Ruby for that one, they were the same men who accompanied Torchwick during the night Professor Ozpin found her._



* * *

_You may remember that I refused to extract Blake's writings because of her prose style (or lack thereof). Regretfully, I had no choice but to add it in here, as other accounts hardly detail the event they were in. If you find her writing to be as intolerable as I do, feel free to skip this section. The occurrence was explained later and wasn't that hard to follow anyway, if only Blake made her account a little more readable._

_And don't get me started on her fanfictions._

Confessions In The Shadows: The Infiltration

Dusk has finally emerged, summoning the starless, cloudy night sky near above the tenebrous, abandoned warehouse where the meeting would betide, indicating that it will now commence as it is scheduled at this very hour.

I traced the White Fang's rough symbolic scratch marks on a nearby hard concrete wall with my soft, alabaster fingers that contrasts to its material. Around its corner displays the entrance to the meeting through an eerily dim passage. I witnessed a couple of troubled faunus youths being accepted inside the building, sadly lacking the cognisance that they won't fight for the betterment of their species regardless of what they're told, but to unwittingly continue the vicious cycle of prejudice and injustice that has been plaguing both human and faunuskind since the dawn of their existence.

"I don't get it. If you believe what you're doing is right, why hide who you are?" Asked my companion, who raised an admittedly decent inquiry, but still more often lacks the intelligence of a monkey than not. It's a pity that he has to accompany me to this crucial mission, as he was the only fellow faunus I know of on this circle of trusted associates, I would have preferred the two other blondes that I have known to be more comfortable with, but for the sake of our objective, they were better off pertaining in their own assignments.

"The masks are a symbol. Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters." I explained to him.

"Grimm masks... That's kind of dark." he remarked.

"So was the guy who started it." My mind was then succumbed into recollecting images of my former beloved, Adam Taurus, after mentioning the particular individual. I purged my own mental images and slipped into my visor, partially obnubilating the face of the 'Belladonna girl' that their branch leader must have apprised about.

We entered the building and blended to a sea of recruits in casual clothing filed beside the ocean of uniformed soldiers, queued in order. As we stood the middle of a mass inside the ominous room, we pulled all of our efforts to remain concealed while the visored members glance at us as another oppressed faunus, yearning to revolt at their human oppressors. Years of experience have made me skilled enough to insinuate into the most secured areas,  **[1]**  therefore my entire mental state lacked any difference from my previous operations provided by the very faction I am currently infiltrating. One distinction from my previous operations, however, is that I am accompanied by a companion who presumably lacked experience in the fine and intricate arts of stealth.

The personage conducting this congregation of horribly misguided, if not hypocritical souls was none other than Lieutenant Fawkes, the tattooed, chainblade-wielding mutilator of the White Fang. My amber orbs threw figurative daggers toward him as I recall every single act of hellish malevolence he partook in when I was affiliated with him. His methods were inhumanely ferocious even by the standards of the most extreme portion of this organization, nevertheless, Adam founded his fellow sadist a respectable position.

"For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for so long."

Roman Torchwick has finally manifested himself to the unwelcoming mob of atrabilious faunus, who propelled every kind of verbal attacks toward him, not that it had affected him one single bit. One such recruit questioned why they allowed themselves to fraternize with one of the evil, repugnant, despotic, materialistic and traitless scum that they anticipated to swear retribution to.

Torchwick managed to calm the blazing fury that was the crowd before him by sharing his dislike for his own species. The same people who bellowed irate jeers at him started howling to cries of joy as they began to accept their collaborator, but anyone who was any wiser knew that he expressed himself through his misanthropy to society as a whole; not out of sympathy for the suffering faunus who in all likelihood, were nothing more than instruments for his enigmatic ends.

Scanning the stage, my perception shifted to a short, strange and interestingly colorful figure beside him. She was a girl with heterochromia, possessing hair that matches the asymmetrical colors of her eyes. Her appearance was of a harmless little girl, making her appear incongruous to the horde of violent ruffians that surround her, but if she indeed was Torchwick's confidant, then she is not as innocent as she seemed. My mind returned to Torchwick, for I lack the necessary information to judge the idiosyncratic midget he is accompanying, nor does she appear as relevant.

"I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy, the ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty, rotten humans that run our kingdoms! Government, military, even the schools; they're all to blame for your lot in life! And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around... No offense to any rodents in the room."

Within a single snap, he uncloaked the enormous object wrapped in black fabric behind him, unveiling a substantially-sized, curveless metal behemoth that had the insignia of the White-Fang painted on its shoulder before his audience.  **[2]**  The members exclaimed in ovation to the unveiling of their new asset. My companion and I were no less shocked at the revelation, as a weapon this formidable should be impossible to be possessed by the likes of Torchwick, no matter how much influence he managed to possess in the dark world of the criminal underground of Vale.

He said that it was one of Atlas' latest technological innovations for their already-powerful military force. He added that he was able to obtain one of these rare mechanical titans though an 'employer'. Whoever this mysterious employer may be and how are they able to somehow take hold of a significant asset from the greatest military powerhouses in the planet even before becoming officially furnished for their utilization, still remains a mystery yet to be solved.

"Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine. But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?"

He was answered with a burst of an applause, with the members harmonically cheering in anticipation to witness the destruction of one their oppressors using with one their jaw-dropping technologies. Within the throng of the roaring herd, we still remained flabbergasted at the reveal of the White Fang's new possession, even if we expected a major unveiling that would help advance Adam's twisted ambitions. "We should get out of here." I turned to Sun and told him.

"Will all new recruits, please come forward." Lieutenant Fawkes commanded. The sea of recruits started to flow straight like an unswerving river, dragging us at its stream of bodies that was advancing onwards; attempting to move to the opposite direction would undoubtedly cause suspicion.

I instigated my assassin instincts and scanned around the monochrome warehouse swiftly for a possible escape route before we could get discovered. Alas, the line of recruits was growing short after a significant number has overtaken us as we remained stationary. Torchwick began to notice the two static recruits, he inquired closely and began to recognize us below our disguises. "He sees us," Sun whispered, I might have to inculpate for his lack of alternative apparel as he was wearing the same Vacuan garb he wore that momentous night.

Continuing to examine the building, I found a fuse box that my intuition apprised me that it would temporarily unsight him and the members with deficient night vision from our tampering presence. "He can't see in the dark," I responded.

I removed my trusted Gambol Shroud from my holster and quickly aimed towards the fused box before squeezing my trigger, shrouding the entire warehouse in near pitch-black darkness with a single blast of gunfire. The room echoed into the sounds of confounded cries of the muddled members trapped inside.

We bolted towards one of the windows, one of the remaining light sources radiating effulgently on the gloominess of the building. I could feel my feet press through the solid ground hardly and repeatedly as we go nearer to the window as its increasing size indicated that we were coming close to it. On our way, I heard a technological resonance of a certain machine actuating, awakening the slumbering giant.

We leaped to the catwalk and hurled our bodies through the window's glass as our masses shatter it to pieces. The atmosphere of the air changes as we were now outdoors while our feet once again meet the surface after descending from the window. As we continue to rush away from the warehouse, its wall collapsed as the mechanical golem being piloted by Torchwick himself emerged from the building.

Jumping over a civilian vehicle to perch above a building, we continue to jump and land from one rooftop to another, evading the rogue Atlesian mech as we traversed through the dense urban jungle, the wind guiding us along our path.

It was now an appropriate time for the team to reassemble. Torchwick will not stop until we are silenced, and he will go to great lengths to achieve that objective. Team synergy was required in order to slay this metal giant. Torchwick must be stopped while we prevent him from painting the town red with the blood of innocent victims caught in the crossfire.

**=o=**

  1. _Those years surely didn't make her a skilled writer. Although, she would make a better poet._
  2. _To those who are asking, yes, it is indeed the Atlesian Paladin that General Ironwood introduced earlier._



* * *

Since the whole Penny thing was at a halt and we didn't feel like taking another bullhead trip back to Beacon just to help Weiss, especially since we know that she can take care of it just fine, we hung out at the arcade to pass time until the others managed to find something.

I managed to maintain the high score on the rail shooter that Ren and I completed a few times, only this time I beat the game solo. Speaking of shooters, Ruby managed to ace the virtual shooting range, getting several bullseyes under a single sitting. Since the games we player tested our skills, it was training to a sense, so we didn't exactly waste our own time just to entertain ourselves.

We left the arcade once it got dark. We still have yet to get an update from others, so we simply strolled around town sharing some stories.

"You serious?" she laughed at my stories about Nora's antics and how consuming soda made her go crazy around robots.

"Yeah, she thinks robots are finally rising up against their meatbag masters and they are about to overthrow us!"

She kept laughing until she suddenly stopped. "Does every robot have to be bad?" she asked. "What if there's a good robot? The ones who will stick on our side."

"I don't know, ask Nora. An idea of a robot uprising wasn't my idea in the first place." I replied.

"Jaune, this might sound weird but… could robots have feelings?"

Huh, she's right about that question being a bit weird. Don't know what made her ask that. She sounded strangely serious about the question though, her eyes still gazing at me as she waited for an answer.

"You mean become sentient? Maybe, if one is crazy and brilliant enough to make that happen. If you're worried about them 'growing beyond their programming', don't; the idea alone is just that silly. Robots have to be unrealistically intelligent for that to happen. Besides, Nora just came up with that because she was on a sugar rush, basically her typical craziness plus one. Robots going full rouge would need a virus vicious enough to violate all three laws of robotics, and that virus needs to be deliberately and carefully designed, you can't make a virus like that by accident. I don't think we have to worry about fighting robots anytime soon, aside from a few combat drones, maybe."

After telling her that, Ruby suddenly heard Blake's voice at her scroll and immediately picked it up.

"Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back—" Blake yelled the second we answered her call, making it no less obvious that she was alarmingly in distress.

"Help~!" Sun cried out in her scroll's background. "Big robot! And it's big! Really big! That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something! Hurry!"

The call was then cut off. "Okay, that's a manually-controlled mech so it doesn't count." I quipped to cope with the fact that the thing with the docks is going to happen again even though that was a stupid statement.

"Whatever that was, I am not missing this!" she said excitedly with a smirk. "Quick, we have no time to lose!"

We tracjed down Blake's scroll, and started to run toward the destination, nevermind that we found out that it was too distant for us to reach. "Crap, they're on the highway bordering on the industrial district, that's miles away! We'll never get there in time!"

"I could, my speed can get me there in a jiffy! I could carry you with it, but it would slow me down and use more of my aura." she proposed.

"Any other bright ideas?" I asked.

"This is an urgent situation! I'm going to have to get there first. Sorry Jaune, but I think you're going to have to catch up!" she said before using her semblance to zoom to the top of the nearest building.

"Wait! What am I suppose to do then?!"

"You'll think of something, I know you can! Right now, my team needs me and I need to be as quick as I can! I'll see you later." she then hurled away with the wind, leaving me with nothing but trails of rose petals.

Great, now what? I asked myself. I didn't have any sort of transportation to travel there quickly. It was also a good opportunity to finally head back to the dorm and I would have taken it if not for the fact that I have a reputation to uphold; people would be asking me why I abandoned them if I did just that, especially since I involved myself in this.

So I continued to run toward Blake's location while thinking on how to get there as quick as possible. Looking around, I spotted a bicycle parking rack on the sidewalk across the street. I was hesitant to commit bicycle theft but what else could I do? Take the bus? Desperate times call for desperate measures. I hope the owner has insurance or something if I'm not able to return it.

I went to the racks and used my lock-picking skills to unlock one of it. I quickly got into the bike and started pedaling to Blake's location as fast as I could.

A few minutes had passed, I checked my scroll and saw that the entire team has already made it while their trackers are still moving around the highway, indicating that the chase was still ongoing.

I managed to make it to the western part of the commercial district. I kept pedaling my way until I saw a couple of VPD squad cars. I thought that they were heading to the highway since they were also heading west like I was, so I followed them.

It was a terrible mistake.

The cops led me to a bank where they suddenly stopped. One of the officers was shot as soon as he left his vehicle. The front of the bank was clouded with smoke where all the gunfire was coming. As soon as I saw this, I pushed the bike's break and tried to turn back, only for someone to start shooting at my front, making me throw myself out of the bike.

I quickly crawled, stood up and ran toward the nearest cop car to get some cover. As soon as the shooting stopped, all of the cops were either dead or too injured to keep fighting. I peeked out as the smoke started to fade. Emerging from it were White Fang soldiers armed to the teeth—on the middle was a small feminine figure. Unlike the robbers, who wore standard-issue White Fang uniforms and visors, this one wore a Grimm mask that concealed her entire face while her hair was still visible at the back of her head, her hair was two-toned in color with one side brown and the other pink; she wore a white jacket with a brown corset under it with her waists slightly exposed, brown pants and white high-heeled boots that still made her look short.

Godsdammit, with all these White Fang encounters lately, I swear that I'm really starting to miss the Grimm, at least they're much less annoying to deal with. Where the hell is Penny when you needed her?

After thinking on what should I do, I unholstered my laser pistol and randomly began firing at the robbers, making them get to cover, while the short, fully-masked one just blocked the shots with her pink umbrella, I was only able to hit one of them down out of chance.

I tried running to the nearest alley, only for more White Fang soldiers to pop out from there, so I had to run back while shooting at them.

I saw that I was surrounded by White Fang bank robbers, so I had little choice but to get rid of them until help arrives.

I went back to the cop cars for cover while using my shield to block incoming gunshots. I then fired at two of the troopers, almost instantly putting them down thanks to the accurate, stopping power my trusty upgraded laser pistol. One of them started to dash towards me with daggers on both hands, she started to jump over the cop car I was at, so I put up my shield up and threw her to the ground once she put her foot above it. I began striking her with my sword while she tried her hardest to deflect them. Sensing a gunman behind me, I slipped to her back with my shield covering as the gunman started to open fire at me, only to gun down his comrade as I block the shots that got past her.

As soon as the dagger wielder fell, I charged toward the assailant and bashed his masked face with my shield before slicing him until he was down as well.

Two White Fang goons looked at each other—one of them a guy with a spiked steel club and the other a girl with a pump-action shotgun. They decided to approach me and tried to succeed where others have failed, unfortunately for them, I couldn't allow that to happen.

I parried the club wielder's attacks while simultaneously blocking the female trooper's shotgun blasts. When the gunner's ammo ran out and started reloading shells into her weapon, I sidestepped from her partner's vertical strike and bashed him with my shield before turning back to slash her, causing her to drop to the ground with her weapon. Afterward, I hear the other trooper cry in agony.

"That was my sister, you son of a bi—!"

Oh, shut up. You attacked me first—what the hell did you expect? I thought as I shot him with my laspistol mid-sentence when his guard was down.

Facing back to the bank, I saw three White Fang members backing out, grabbing the bags of money then fleeing. The short one without the uniform, on the other hand, decided to step in.

I pointed my gun at her and started shooting, which she just casually deflected it with her umbrella. My ammo clip ran out, so I holstered it back and expanded my shield. She pulled down her umbrella's canopy and started attacking me with her weapon. I blocked her initial attacks with my shield. I dashed back and went to strike at her, but she was too fast that she dodged every swing. She countered one of my attacks and started to push me back until she swept my feet, making me fall to the ground.

I kept parrying a few more of her attacks while lying down before she managed to swing my sword away from my grasp. She then stomped on my left arm, ceasing me from using my shield as she unsheated a blade from her and raised it to stab my face.

Before she was able to do so, a gunshot flew into her mask, knocking her back before a scarlet blur came to her and began to clash her weapon with hers.

I took a good look at the figure who saved me, it was none other than my partner—The Invincible Girl herself. "Pyrrha?"

"Hello again!" Pyrrha greeted as she was pushing her sword against the girl's umbrella before they both pulled back. "We'll discuss this later!"

I nodded at her and got to cover. I reloaded my laspistol as I peeked out and watch Pyrrha and the short bank robber fight. I noticed a red laser sight aim towards me before I leaned back and avoided the shot, I fired back at the sniper who was at the top of the bank, dispatching him with a single accurate shot.

On hindsight, I'm glad I warmed up my firing arm with that light gun game at the arcade earlier.

Looking back at the two girls. The short robber had her masked damaged enough, she threw it away—revealing a face that contained mismatched eyes that share the color of her two-toned hair. Above all that, I realized she wasn't a faunus, meaning like Torchwick, she's no regular member. I stepped in and assisted Pyrrha into dealing with this threat, forcing the short girl to change tactics and started spinning around her umbrella to parry both of our attacks.

She turned at me as we started to clash our weapons. She kicked her back which Pyrrha blocked with her shield. As I continued to parry her attacks with my sword, I began shooting at her legs, making her leap back as Pyrrha threw her javelin at her, she dodged it but it ended up hitting a bag of money being carried by a White Fang member, causing him to drop it and cower away.

The short girl then narrowed her eyes but then suddenly smirked. I readied my weapon and started charging at her since she was open and was just standing there. But after swinging it to her, her figure literally devolved into pieces of glass.

Confused, I stared at the shatter pieces that was supposed to be her body, wondering where she was. We then saw a Bullhead float above us, its passenger—the same girl we just fought—smiled and waved at us before she flew away..

I panted as I look around the area, finding nothing but bodies of police officers and White Fang troopers lying around. "Is that the end of it?" I asked.

Pyrrha was about to answer, but then she suddenly turned back, locked the wrist of a White Fang member, pushed him to the ground and aimed his hand cannon at him after swiping it. "I think it is now." she said.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked her.

"Nora calmed down and took a nap and Ren was keeping an eye on her, so I decided to check on my own partner, and found out that he was fighting bank robbers!" she said after tying down the last White Fang trooper, crossing her arms as she scowls at me.

"Trust me, I didn't exactly want to be here."

"You really do have a knack of finding yourself in trouble. I thought you were supposed to be helping Team RWBY in whatever they're doing. Not… this." she said as she gestured around the place.

"I was about to continue doing that until I got into this mess," I explained.

"Where are they now then?"

"They're in the highway, fighting a giant robot I presume."

"What?" she asked as if I was screwing around. Couldn't blame her, it's as incredulous as it sounds.

"I'm serious. This was supposed to be a simple investigation, then Blake and Sun called saying they were being chased by a giant robot with Torchwick in it. We all rushed to help, then I ended up here."

"An investigation? Torchwick? What is this all about?"

"It's a long story."

"And aren't these the bandits from Forever Fall?" she gestured to the unconscious bodies of the White Fang troopers.

"They're not bandits, unfortunately," I stated, struggling to keep my gaze at her.

"Jaune, could you explain to me what is going on?!" she demanded, obviously out of loop on these things.

"I'll have to do that later," I said as I spot and hear sirens approaching us from a distance.

A few squad cars arrived. Police officers then got out and started pointing their guns at us. "Oi! Hands in the air. Drop your bloody weapons!" One of them commanded.

I considered protesting and explaining that I'm not a robber (although I did steal a bike earlier), but I knew the wise thing to do was comply. I know my rights, and they aren't going to consider me a robber since I wasn't wearing a White Fang's uniform. Really, the only bad part about this was I couldn't go with my usual routine of looting enemy bodies.

I dropped my weapons and put my hands up, Pyrrha did the same.

"Wait. Pyrrha Nikos?" One cop realized who he was aiming to as he lowered his gun. "Sign my notepad please!"

She glanced at me, which I could only respond with a shrug.

"Oight, lads, calm down, they're not a threat." Another officer said to the others before turning at us. "But that doesn't mean you kids are innocent. You two still have some explainin' to do."

Here we go again. If I knew that I was heading to a bank robbery—with the fucking White Fang no less, I would have taken a cab back to Beacon and let Team RWBY (plus Sun and Neptune) **[1]**  do their own thing; they were capable without me, why did I even go to the trouble of bothering to help? And why was the White Fang robbing a bank anyway? Last time I checked, they needed dust but not money.

Those girls better have some good news.

**=o=**

  1. _Like Neptune mentioned earlier on his audio logs, they weren't able to provide an adequate contribution to the battle with the Paladin. See the excerpts below._



* * *

_Editorial Note: Since since Jaune was unable to be present during the encounter with Torchwick's stolen Atlesian Paladin at the highway bordering between the Industrial District and the Commercial District of Vale, the event will be detailed by excerpts through Ruby's memoirs and Neptune's audio logs. For obvious reasons, Blake's accounts will be excluded, since their previous inclusion was already enough for one chapter._

Neptune's Audio Logs: Big Freakin' Robot! 

**Neptune:** After leaving that shady club, Sun and Blake suddenly called us saying they were being chased by a giant robot as those two coincidentally passed us.

_(Audio cuts to Neptune and Yang after leaving the club.)_

**Neptune:** Those guys really hate you, don't they?

 **Yang:** Well, they wouldn't have to if they were a little nicer before.

 **Neptune:** What exactly happened then?

 **Yang:** Well, here's the short version: I asked them for something, they tried to beat me up, I ended up kicking their butts. Let's just say the club remained closed for a few months.

 **Neptune:** _(Surprised pause.)_  Okay… that explains that.

_(They got in Yang's motorcycle. After she started her engine. She suddenly heard Blake's voice coming out from the scroll.)_

**Blake:** _(Scroll call)_  Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back—

 **Sun:**   _(In the background of Blake's scroll)_  HEEEELLLLP!

 **Neptune:**  Oh hey, it's Sun.

 **Yang:**  Shush!

 **Sun:**   _(In the background of Blake's scroll)_  Big robot! And it's big! Really big! That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something!

 **Yang:** _(Responding at the call.)_  Where are you guys?

_(Metallic stomps can be heard at the background.)_

**Sun:** _(In the background of Blake's Scroll and somewhere in the duo's distance.)_ HUURRYY!

 **Neptune:**  I think that was them.

 **Yang:**  Yeah, I got it.  _(Turns around her motorcycle then accelerated.)_

 **Neptune:**  Whoa!

_(Audio cuts to a couple or more minutes later.)_

**Yang:**  We've gotta slow it down!

 **Neptune:**  Got it!

_(Sounds of car horns and vehicles crashing.)_

**Yang:**  Hold on!

 **Neptune:**   _(Screaming.)_

_(Cars crashing.)_

**Neptune:**   _(Weapon twirling.) (Railgun blasting.) (Weapon transporting._ )  _(Grunts as he leaps to the Paladin) (Sound of a weapon penetrating a metal.)_

 **Sun:** _(In a distance, barely audible due to the traffic.)_ Neptune, hang on!

 **Neptune:**   _(Screams as he struggles balance with the robot.)_

_(Sounds of Sun's clones colliding with the Paladin.)_

**Neptune:** _(Screaming) (Bump)_

_(Both Sun and Neptune screamed as they both fall from the highway.)_

**Sun:** _(Lands safely on his feet.)_ Ha! Perfect landing.

 **Neptune:**  Oof!  _(Lands on his partner.)_

 **Sun:** _(Grunts in pain.)_

 **Neptune:**  Sun, are you okay?

 **Sun:**   _(Painful moans.)_  My back…

 **Neptune:**  Yeah, that's right, bro. I got your back.

 **Sun:** No, you moron—my back hurts!

 **Neptune:**  Oh, sorry.

 **Sun:**  Give me a sec _. (A few seconds pass as his aura heals him.)_  There, much better now.

 **Neptune:**  Seriously dude, a giant freaking robot?!

 **Sun:**  Hey, I'm just as surprised as you! I didn't know what we were walking into.

 **Neptune:**  Okay, okay. You think we could still catch up to them?

_(Audio pauses as they look at a faraway distance. They saw the Paladin fall and looks at their allies.)_

**Sun:**  You know what, let them handle this. It's their fight; I just dragged ourselves into this. This is just too much. Fighting Torchwick in that robot would be badass, but I didn't sign ourselves up for this. Innocent people just got hurt, man!

 **Neptune:**  Wait, what? So, we're just gonna leave them?!

 **Sun:**  They'll be fine. I've seen them fight, they could handle it. We'll just be a liability anyway.

 **Neptune:**   _(Sighs)_  Whatever you say.  _(Pause.)_  Man, I could use something to eat.

 **Sun:**  I know a place; you'll feel right at home.

 **Neptune:**  Hey… I just realized something. Where's Jaune?

 **Sun:**  I have no idea.

* * *

The Red Rose Diaries: Fighting Torchwick at the Highway. 

I saw Torchwick shove cars off as he chases Yang, and all I could do was watch and let Weiss use her ice dust to make him and his robot slip until he falls below the highway. All I could think of was the people he harmed because they were in his way, but I went to hold my emotions for the moment and focus on stopping Torchwick.

Everyone was already there and were ready.  **[1]**  We first used 'Freezer Burn' to create a fog out Weiss ice and have Yang crash on it. It gave us some time while Torchwick had trouble finding us at the fog.

I charged and hit him. I ordered Weiss and Blake to attack the robot at its legs while it has trouble trying to shoot them. Torchwick tried to stomp Blake, but Weiss pulled her with glyphs before that could happen.

Torchwick fired some rockets to them but they were able to avoid them. Thanks to Weiss' time dilation abilities with her glyphs, Blake was able to slice all of those missiles down.

Blake and I went in and attacked its legs again. When Torchwick tried to shoot me. We both jumped up and sliced off one of his robot's arm.

Yang then leaped to his back. Punching it until Torchwick launches himself to the highway's pillars until he managed to shook her off. This was a mistake for him, as it activated Yang's semblance. With that, she blew the other robot's arm when it tried to punch her. Torchwick kicked her, making her fly away. I got Blake to pull her back with her weapon's ribbon.

We needed to slow it down, so I fired several rounds of ice dust at Weiss' glyphs, creating shots powerful enough to freeze Torchwick's robot. Blake threw Yang at Torchwick, finally breaking his robot to pieces.

Yang tried to put him down once and for all with by firing a shot, only for some weird colorful-looking girl to come out and block it with her umbrella. Yang tried to charge and punch them before finding out she broke pieces of a mirror, with them disappearing. We then found them on a Bullhead, flying away, scot-free.

It looks like Torchwick has a new henchman, according to Yang.

We may have broken his robot, but he got away... and we couldn't save those people. Weiss tried to lighten the mood and it's not funny, even Yang called her out on it.

The police came, one of them was the detective from the docks. He said that we needed a serious talk. We couldn't find a reason to say 'no', after all, it's our fault why Torchwick hurt those people.

Could we have done something? Was it our fault that we made Torchwick hurt those people? I can't answer that.

I wish Mom was here, she would have known what to do.

**=o=**

  1. _For those who are wondering how I got from Beacon to Vale's western highway so quickly, I bribed a Bullhead pilot into giving me a 'private emergency flight' and have him take me there as soon as possible. After I was already above the highway, I paid him and told him he was done before making my landing._



* * *

We all sat around the VPD's interrogation room in silence. The entire group, plus Pyrrha, was here. Sun and Neptune also came when they were called.

Tension was in the room as we waited for Professor Ozpin and Detective Huntley to return from their conversation outside. Ruby, on the other hand, looked disheartened, lacking her usual spirit and enthusiasm, I heard she was upset that they were indirectly responsible for the civilian casualties on the highway, and that they couldn't do anything to prevent them.

"Tell me, Jaune. Do you really have experience with examining records?" Weiss asked, breaking the silence in a furious, yet mild tone.

It appears that Weiss was not happy about us leaving her and forcing her to check her family's company records on her own, and I thought she was better off without us bugging her.

"Yeah, I used to work part-time indexing for a local bookstore as a summer job. Tedious work but the pay was decent." I answered.

"That means…" she said before suddenly shouting and slamming the table. "You could have helped me! Do you have any idea how long it took me to analyze an excessive amount of records on my own?"

"Hey, you look like you have it all figured out, Ice queen; your straight A's says it all. It's not like you wanted my help anyway." I shouldn't be verbally defending myself but I wasn't in the mood of being pushed around after recently having my life on the edge yet again.

"Just because I'm not happy about it doesn't mean I don't need it!" she retorted. "And please stop calling me that!"

"Then stop acting like one!"

"Stop it!" Ruby cried out. "Innocents died and Torchwick got away with it. Now we're here to be questioned and you two are fighting! We need to stick out for each other for now, it's why we're all even alive."

We were both taken aback by Ruby's grief. Not being able to save innocents really hit her hard. "She's right," I told Weiss.

"Don't." she replied, looking away from me.

It was quiet again. Aside from the room ambiance, there wasn't any another sound until the door opened with Professor Ozpin and Detective Huntley.

"You kids just can't stay out of trouble, can you?" the detective remarked. "First the docks, and then this, then I was informed that some of you have interesting backgrounds and that you are also the most hectic students on Beacon this year." he said as some of us became nervous, muffled chuckles.

"Anyway, who started this unsanctioned investigation?" he inquired.

Ruby and Blake both raised their hands which they started to stare at each other.

"I assume that both of you started this?"

"Actually, sir, I was the one who gave the idea of…"

"No Blake, it's my fault. It may be because of you, but I was the one who started this investigation. If I just chose to help you in another way, none of us have to be in here and feel guilty for those we weren't able to save."

Blake was shocked at her statement and tried to assure her. "Ruby, no one's blaming you for—"

"No! If we didn't interfere, Roman wouldn't have to chase us and hurt those who happened to be on his way. We really should have just let the police handled it."

I really felt sorry for her. I know what it's like to be guilty over things you have no control over. "Don't push yourself that hard, Ruby, you only did what you thought was the right team and you did it to help a friend. You couldn't have known that Torchwick would rampage the street with a stolen robot, none of us could have!" I consoled.

"But you came out a hero, I, on the other hand, wasn't able to get Torchwick and make him pay for what he did."

I did not respond, I just couldn't; I could only look at her in pity when she felt guilty because she was too selfless to see innocents suffer while she envies me for my supposed heroics while being oblivious of my selfishness. I would have left the bank for its fate, but I had to act out of self-defense because I wanted to preserve my life. Now people are hailing me once again, while the willing heroes are lamenting for their failure; they deserved better than this.

"Okay, so Miss Rose is pining all the blame for this. But I'm not here because of what got you into nosing to the White Fang, but why this all started in the first place, and it appears that Miss Belladonna was the root of all of this." Detective Huntley said before turning to Blake. "Could you explain why?"

She looked down and hesitated for a bit. "It's because of my friend, Tukson, the bookstore owner who was murdered a few days ago. I believe the White Fang have something to do with it."

She was obviously lying and we all knew it,  **[1]** but we respected her secret, including Weiss and surprisingly Ozpin, who just stood there and watched. It was best not to expose her previous affiliation with the White Fang, as we don't know what they'd do to her.

"Ah, yes, we're still looking into that. But what made you think that the White Fang was behind it?"

"Because… he used to be with them." she answered, some of us were surprised, but Detective Huntley just cupped his chin, intrigued. "But he wasn't a radical or anything, he believed in equality and peaceful coexistence even if he had to resort a few extreme measures. But he realized that they were going too far that he left, which is why they hunted him down." she explained, wiping a tear. "You already know that he was once a member, do you?"

"Yes, we do. Recent evidence shows that he was indeed a former member when we searched his flat, but that doesn't mean we're jumping to the conclusion that the White Fang murdered him because they want him silenced. We will, however, take that as a possibility while we continue to investigate it." he affirmed. "By the way, you knew he was a member prior to his death?"

"He trusted me enough that he told me everything because he knew his time would come."

"Were you two close?" he inquired.

"No, it's nothing like that. I was just one of the few people he trusted."

"I see. Thank you, Miss Belladonna. Now back to the recent incident. Why was Roman Torchwick chasing you with an Atlesian mech that wasn't even supposed to be available for its military yet?"

"During our investigation, Sun and I discovered one of their meetings. I passed myself as a faunus and snuck in. Torchwick then presented himself and showed him the mech, saying he got it thanks to his 'employer'. He eventually discovered us and used the mech to try chase us down and the rest is history."

"Infiltrating the White Fang, huh? You kids have more guts than most of the officers in this precinct." he said before looking at the wall where the one-way window was supposed to be. "No offense."

Yang noticed this and smiled and waved at the invisible officers on the other side.

"So not only Torchwick is still with the White Fang, but he also under an employment of someone who could take hold of a weapon that's still in production. This is bigger than we thought it would be." he remarked. "Enough about the Torchwick and the mech. How did you know about the White Fang's bank robbery while all of that was occurring, Mr. Arc?"

Well, shit. Here goes nothing.

"When Blake and Sun were calling for help, we had to get there as soon as we could, so regretfully, I had to steal a random bike to get there quick," I explained.

Detective Huntley raised his brow, Ozpin was still as calm as before, everyone, meanwhile was giving me looks mixed with shock and confusion, including Sun, who if I recall correctly, wasn't above stealing food.

"You yoinked someone's bike?" Yang questioned.

"Do you really think I wanted to do that?! It was a dire situation; I'm not happy that I had to do it. At least, that bike could still be returned." I defended.

"We're going to have to discuss that some other time." Detective Huntley said. "Please continue, Mr. Arc."

"Right. While I was heading there with my 'borrowed' bike, I saw some police cars and thought they were heading to the highway, but it turned out they were responding to a bank robbery prompted by the White Fang. I decided to stay there and stop them, knowing the others would handle Torchwick just fine." I told them, leaving the part where I tried to get away, only for the White Fang to stop me and force me into fighting them.

"What else did you notice during the robbery?" the detective further inquired.

"Well, there was this one girl. Unlike the others, who were White Fang members, this one was wearing a full mask. She was short, and when she took the mask off, I saw that she had mismatched eyes that shared the color of her hair, which was pink and brown. She used an umbrella to fight."

That caught Team RWBY's attention, but Detective Huntley was the first to respond.

"Hold on. A short girl that has a two-toned hair with mismatched eyes that were colored pink and brown and carried an umbrella? You're not talking about The Neapolitan Butcher, are you?"

"The Neapolitan Butcher?"

"Neapolitan? Isn't that—like the ice cream?" Yang asked.

"Correct, the name comes from her color scheme, which is the same as Neapolitan ice cream. She's one of Roman Torchwick's accomplices. Don't let that girl's look deceive you, she is one of the worst psychopaths we still haven't caught because of how slippery she is to take on."

That explains why she was a tough fight. She could have killed me had not Pyrrha arrived.

Detective Huntley faced the one-way window again. "Hey Dylan, could you get those files for me please." he then looked back at me. "Anything else I should know?"

"I think Blake and I saw her at the warehouse; she was beside Torchwick when he was showing off the robot," Sun added.

"That confirms that it is indeed her." Detective Huntley stated before turning back at me "Continue on where you left off, Mr. Arc."

"Pyrrha came in and helped me fight her off. It wasn't really wasn't easy, she was fast and tricky. She suddenly turned to shards and got away in a Bullhead."

"Shucks, she pulled that to us too!" Yang added. "Only that time, she used it to escape with Torchwick!"

"Must have been some sort of semblance that manipulates the target's view with an illusionary image," Weiss said. "Anyway, what were you doing there, Pyrrha?"

"Just went to check on my partner. Found him fighting bank robbers so I came in and assisted him." she answered.

"Yeah. Thanks again, Pyrrha. I guess owe you another one." I uttered.

"You don't have to owe me anything. I was just looking after my partner and leader." she beamed.

The door opened and a police officer came in, carrying some files on 'The Neapolitan Butcher.'

"Ah, thank you." Detective Huntley took the files as the officer left the room.

He put the file on the table, opening it and revealing a pencil sketch of her face and a few zoomed-in photos that barely showed her from various security cameras.

"That's her," Pyrrha confirmed.

"It wasn't easy to make a record of her; we could only get vague details while the rest are missing. We were only able to have this sketch and some security footage for a visual source since none were able to bring back any photos alive. There was an account of Torchwick calling her 'Neo', which is likely to be an alias. Aside from that, the only thing we know about her is that she's affiliated with Torchwick and is extremely dangerous. If you happen to encounter her again, I highly advise you not to engage her alone, or better yet, do not engage her at all. If you want to know how dangerous she is, she has killed  _trained Huntsmen_  before. Trained. Huntsmen."

I gulped. I just happened to get into a fight with a homicidal psychopath and somehow lived to tell the tale, mostly because I was assisted by an undefeated champion, but just imagine if Pyrrha did not interfere.

Thinking about it, I think I've seen her stature before but I couldn't make my mind off it.

"Now back at the robbery." the detective faced me again. "Could you tell me why was the White Fang robbing the bank? I know they're no stranger to robberies but last time I checked, they didn't need the money, all they needed was dust. Lastly, why were they still wearing their uniforms when they could easily pose as regular criminals? One could assume that they were wearing White Fang uniforms to frame the group, but the recent interrogations and evidence proved that they were indeed the White Fang."  **[2]**

"Your guess is as good as mine." I shrugged. How could I know what the White Fang are up to, I didn't even get much info on them lately.

The detective sighed "Alright then. Now with that out of the way, Mr. Arc. As much as I want to be lenient with you since the aftermath of the bank robbery would have been worse if it weren't for your meddling, I'm afraid we still have to follow protocol and condemn all of you to disciplinary action." he said before he turned to everyone.

Oh gods, I don't like where this is going, I thought.

"Since you conducted an investigation on one of the most serious criminal organizations on Remnant without the approval of your superiors, and because of the repercussions you caused. All of you, are sentenced to community service with the exclusion of Nikos, as she was not part of the investigation, and her presence at the robbery are not accounted for."

We all looked down at guilt. It eventually had to happen sooner or later.

"Your duration varies on the degree of your involvement. Wukong and Vasillias have the shortest amount, only having three days of labor, given their minimum contribution; Arc will be given a week of service for bike theft, despite his efforts to reduce the havoc at the bank robbery that we do appreciate; Rose, Schnee, and Belladonna will be given ten days of service for damages and casualties they indirectly caused to the public on an unauthorized investigation.  **[3]**  Miss Xiao Long, on the other hand, would be given a special case, not only for her participation like the rest of you but also because of her interesting history..." he said as he pulled out his scroll and opened it to a database.

"Wait, so you're telling me that Yang… has A CRIMINAL RECORD?!" Weiss suddenly shouted.

I wanted to say I'm surprised, but then again her partner was an ex-member of an international terrorist group that I fought for three times now, and that very same ex-terrorist gave me a kiss on the cheek a couple of weeks ago.

"Well... it's probably just a few cases of underage drinking..." Yang nervously reckoned as she grimaced.  **[4]**

"That and… speeding, reckless driving, disorderly conduct, vandalism, participation in illegal bike races…" Detective Huntley said as he reads her record on his scroll.

Yang's entire team glared at her as Detective Huntley continues to read out her listed record of crimes and all she could do was nervously smile.

"…assault, property damage, and of course, littering." he said as he finishes.

Wow, Yang, you've been going places. I think I feel less guilty about stealing a bike now.

"This is absurd! What's next? Ruby getting charged for stealing cookies?" Weiss fumed before she realized that Ruby was still at grief. "Oh. Sorry, Ruby."

"It's okay…" she responded in a low voice. It was still too soon for her.

"That would give her a whole month of service, while on probation. Meaning you would only do labor on Beacon's grounds. You are forbidden to visit the city until your penalty is lifted. If it was up to me, this would have been harsher, but Professor Ozpin made an agreement to the chief of police, and this is the most clement verdict we could give you." Detective Huntley told her.

"That is bullcrap! There's gotta be another way where I could make it up to you somehow." Yang protested.

"Miss Xiao Long, I'm afraid I have to concur with Detective Huntley here." the Great & Powerful Ozpin finally stepped in and spoke after just standing there for a while now. "Laws are laws, and so long as they are fair and just, they deserve to be enforced. I may have pardoned you previously, but you will have to face the consequences of your actions this time around. This is a rather merciful verdict for a criminal record like yours. Either you accept this or spend some time behind bars. Worry not about missions, you can still participate in them since they count as service."

"This is freaking stupid…" Yang grumbled. "Fine. Don't expect me to enjoy this. I feel like being grounded again."

"I would also like to add that only Wukong and Vasillias will serve at city grounds, Team RWBY and Arc will only perform service at Beacon, where they would be safe from the White Fang since they would undoubtedly hunt them down for their recent actions against them." Detective Huntley added.

"Detective. Pardon me, but I could pay for the reparations. That way, we don't have to perform community ser—" Weiss tried to propose before Ozpin himself silenced her by raising his hand.

"Miss Schnee, while your offer is appreciated; I'm afraid that we decided that I will have to pay for the damages myself," Ozpin interjected. "You need to be disciplined for the recent chaos, even if you did not intend for any of this to happen. This is a deed we cannot let go unpunished."

"But—"

"This is not up for debate. You will all serve your sentences and think about what you've just caused and that's final." he clinched. With that, it shows that there was no way of bargaining our way out of our punishments and all we could do was face the music and accept our fates.

"Thank you, Professor Ozpin." Detective Huntly said. "Alright, I think I'm done here. Thank you all for your cooperation. Try not to get yourselves into trouble again and please stop acting like vigilantes without the approval of your superiors." he concluded as he stood up. "Now, if you excuse me I still have to study the mech's remains. You're all free to go."

Detective Huntley left the room as Ozpin stood at the middle, looking at all of us.

"Students. I can neither say I'm happy or disappointed by your recent stunts. But I want you to take this as a learning opportunity not to provoke deadly criminals and organizations. The authorities, with the cooperation of fully-trained Huntsmen, are hard at work dealing with these types of threats every day, while you are all still just preparing. You may be skilled, but your skills may only be wasted if you are not careful enough; fortunately, none of you have died and you were given fair enough punishments for your lack of discipline. Even then, it does not change the fact that five civilians are confirmed dead and thirty-nine others are currently hospitalized as a result of your destructive curiosities."

We remained silent as he lectures us. Thinking of what went wrong and if this investigation was a good idea from the start. I, myself knew it wasn't, but I couldn't just leave when I said I'd help as it may strain any relationship I had with them when I need them backing me up at worst of times.

"Now enough of this, I believed you have all learned your lessons, but you still have to perform the services you are assigned with and think about your actions. Now follow my lead. We'll be taking the Bullhead back to Beacon."

We all stood up and followed Ozpin to the rooftop. As we were making our way there—I looked at Ruby, who was still looking down, feeling guilty for all the lives she couldn't save. I never liked seeing Ruby sad, she was like a sister to me, along with Pyrrha and Nora, so I went next to her and brighten her up.

"You know, Ruby. I wouldn't have stopped those bank robbers if you didn't bring me into your investigation. I know that there were people you couldn't save, but that doesn't mean you didn't save anyone. Who knows what would happen if I didn't go the bank? You should look at the bright side of things, you don't have to always feel so guilty."

Ruby poked her head up and turned her head at me. I smiled at her to let her know that I was there for her. Without a word, she smiled back, getting my message.

Yang noticed me cheer her sister up. She went in and patted my shoulder. "You did good, lady killer."

I beamed at Yang with a nod. Ruby deserved to know that it wasn't entirely her fault and that no matter what, her friends are with her.

Now I know how my sisters felt when they see me dejected...

After this, I really need to stop hanging out with Team RWBY for a bit and focus on my team. I only went with them because I thought it would be a quick and simple search for information with no fighting, but it only put me on  _Podunk 2: The Unwanted Sequel_ and gave my third strike to the White Fang. I really have enough of these that I'm starting to appreciate the Grimm and schoolwork.

So ends the second day of the second semester and I already feel tired.

**=o=**

  1. _It wasn't entirely a lie though, Blake holds some friendship with Tukson prior to the latter's murder. While Blake truly didn't tell the full reason why she was after the White Fang, Tukson's death was one of her motivations for her investigation._
  2. _The White Fang was trying to raise funds for an operation that was considered confidential enough that it was even kept secret to the other divisions, including to their high leader. As for the latter question, it's likely that they simply did not bother hiding their affiliation._
  3. _Despite being a former terrorist, Blake did not hold a criminal record in Vale since she hadn't committed a single crime inside the kingdom or at least hasn't been caught committing one._
  4. _The drinking age in Vale was 18. Adolescents aged 16 are also allowed to drink under adult supervision. Yang was 17 at the time, and while she was not exactly a heavy drinker, she had a few accounts of drinking underage without an adult chaperone._



* * *

_Editorial Note: Before ending this chapter, we will now look into the White Fang's perspective through one of their reports they left that details the incident in their point of view._

The White Fang Reports: Valian Assualt After-Action 

The human oppressors of Vale should start trembling in fear, for our day of retribution is coming close with each passing hour. The downtrodden people of faunuskind will soon rise as their champions liberate them from the shackles of tyranny as the streets of Vale will be cleansed of fascist filth.

But in order to achieve that, we must cooperate with some humans who share the grudges to those who oppress us. One such person would be Roman Torchwick, a crime lord under the collaboration of the district leader, Adam Taurus and a henchman of our mysterious backer. Many will find the collaboration from a human dubious, but we should remember that the enemy of our enemy is our friend, and Torchwick's contribution will help aid the future of faunuskind as he holds munitions necessary to achieve our objectives.

He said that through his superiors, he managed to get a hold on prototype battle suits that was still not available for the public, the Atlesian Paladin. How they were able to get a hold of these mechanized mobile suits was beyond our comprehension, but it did not matter as we finally have ammunition that could be the key to our success.

We introduced the Paladin to one of our recruitment meetings, administered by Lieutenant Fawkes and Torchwick himself. But we found that the meeting was being infiltrated by Blake Belladonna and one of the pets that accompanied her during the debacle at the docks a couple of weeks ago. Torchwick used the mech, not only to pursue them, but to demonstrate its abilities, and prevent her from interfering with the bank robbery that we planned to carry out shortly after.

Lieutenant Fawkes bought half of the recruits with The Panther Company on the robbery as an initiation, we were accompanied by Torchwick's companion, Neo, who is said to be the same person as 'The Neapolitan Butcher'. With the group's strength, it a presumed that the robbery would be a decisive success.

And then he appeared.

The robbery was going well, we were able to grab hold of the funds needed we were aiming for the White Fang's upcoming operation for Mountain Glenn and VPD was unable to stop us. But alas came the blond Huntsman who was responsible for the destruction of the Forever Fall outpost and one of the assailants to our failures at the docks. He slaughtered our men, recruits and veterans alike until they were either dead or crippled. Only Neo and a few members escaped, those who didn't were detained or worse—killed.

We have finally coined a name for this human: The Valian Defanger. He is becoming an even worse wrench in our works that were only able to recover one-third of our objective at the robbery, meaning we still needed more lien if we were to carry out Mountain Glenn's operation in the future. While all hope is not lost, the ambitions of a liberated Vale is under a serious threat. The human responsible for this must be dealt with quickly before he ruins more of our operations.

On a related note, Torchwick was able to escape from the Huntsmen, but with the cost of the Paladin. Nevertheless, that was only one of the many battlesuits that are stocked at our armaments, and it only confirmed that they functioned as intended.

Some recruits have become disheartened at our recent failures, but we assured them that we will never give up and that we will soon gain the upper hand among the humans who think they could hinder our campaign, because soon, our morale will ameliorate and we will be the rallying cry of every persecuted faunus on this wretched kingdom.

* * *

 


	8. Ladies Knight

_Editorial Note: The next chapter will be focusing on the Freshman's Dance Night and the events leading up to it, which was first written three days after Team RWBY's investigation around Vale, starting at Friday's combat class._

_And just for the record, this is personally my least favorite chapter of this extract from Jaune's journal during his Beacon times, I assume you already know why._

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Ladies' Knight**

* * *

 

> _"You've always been a charming one, White Knight. Your face just needs a little more red... Don't worry, you'll live long enough to see your own reflection."_
> 
> **_-Last words of serial killer, Marianne Philips, better known as 'The Demon in the Mirror'_ **

 

After that night, I had to spend the last couple of days giving a few hours of unpaid labor every after class to make up for the repercussions we caused during that night, which is basically detention since I only work inside the academy. It wouldn't have been that bad since all I had to do was work for a few hours inside the safety of Beacon had it not for the fact that word about my exploit was spread overnight with Nora gushing about it after I woke up the next morning, while berating me for not taking Ren and her to at the bank robbery. But if anything, she should be glad she that didn't because she wouldn't have to get sentenced on community service just like me. Pyrrha on the other hand probably did not get convicted because of her reputation and because she didn't really do much other than to knock down a few troopers and save my bacon from a four-foot multicolored psychopath.

It wasn't just her. Apparently, people here tuned in to the midnight and morning news and applauded me and Pyrrha for foiling the bank robbery, unaware of my sentence and the fact that my presence there was unwanted, while ignoring Team RWBY, Sun and Neptune's battle with a stolen Atlesian mech on the highway even if it did result in a few civilian casualties.  **[1]** I kept hearing it for the whole day, with everyone I came across approaching me and talking about it, telling me and Pyrrha that we did a great job while all I could do was smile and spout some self-deprecating bullshit that I couldn't have done it without her help and cover my own ass.

Okay, it wasn't exactly bullshit; it's true that I really couldn't have done it without Pyrrha, but you get what I feel about this.

I had a feeling that my ignominious reputation as the Defender of Podunk was finally falling to obscurity, with everyone who brought it out forgetting about it five minutes after asking if I was him. Then I blew it by accepting to help out a friend for a task that was supposed to be a simple team investigation, following a peculiar girl for answers instead of checking records, stealing a stupid bike and going to the wrong way by following cop cars who I thought was heading to the highway. Now I'm on the godsdamn news again with my name spelled wrong as usual,  **[2]** and journalists have been trying to visit Beacon to get my interview.

Wonderful, here I am in the spotlight again. At least no one told about my minor act of bike thievery, Yang still hasn't lived that down yet.

Pyrrha is also affected by this because not only she fought with me, it was also one of the rarest moments where the Invincible Girl of Mistral fights outside the tournament. Of course, it was too good of a story for journalists not to milk, so it wasn't just my reputation that was enhanced. At the very least, I have yet to spot a paparazzi trying to get some juicy details about my personal life for some dumbfuck article only people with no life would care about.

On the bright side, I don't think I have to worry about who to look for to dance with this Sunday. That night kind of bought me and Pyrrha closer considering the stuff we had to deal with in its aftermath. That and I have attracted some girls who would kill to dance with me after hearing my supposed act of bravery.

I have to admit—after dealing with some missions within Pucelle and that aforementioned night, it's nice to feel the peaceful boredom of class hours again. Now I just need to enjoy every last minute of it until I get my first mission this upcoming Monday.

I sat beside Pyrrha at Combat Class after doing a few exercises with her before the sparring sessions began. She smiled at me and I returned the gesture, knowing how much we comforted one another when dealing with the pressures of being on a pedestal. It really showed that we do have some genuine partnership together and that we're paired up for a reason other than we just happened to be the first contact we made during the initiation.

I turned to check on Team RWBY. While they looked fine for the most part, they still appear to be recovering from that night. Ruby looked like she was back to her perky self, but I could still sense that she hasn't gotten over the casualties she wasn't able to prevent. Weiss was maintaining her composure while she was obviously infuriated that she had to do community service for ten days; Yang was doing her best not to show her displeasure of being banned from the city for a month in addition to her daily labor; Blake, meanwhile had it worst, she became much moodier since that night and appear to be lacking in sleep if her eye bags and the paleness of her skin did not give that away. She was occupied into reading her books, while she was always like that, it was blatant that she was trying to ease her mind after what happened that night.

I know they were resilient enough to handle this but I still can't help but feel guilty that they have to go through all of that while I get all the glory. Having to serve labor which sentence was half long as theirs wasn't enough to make us even. If anyone deserved to be called brave aside from Pyrrha that night—it should be them. They courageously faced a wanted criminal on a highway full of innocents and almost won, but instead, they were still penalized for casualties and damages they barely had control over.

I sighed and just told myself to focus on the present. I noticed I was also sitting next to the Haven team whom I bumped into last Monday; I saw them in their combat outfits for the first time, since the last time I met them, they were in their Haven uniforms. They seem to be an okay bunch, despite being somewhat strange at times but that's probably just me, each team has their own quirks anyway.

"Man, all these exercising and team-building stuff is killing me. I think my legs are aching for some action." Mercury—the gray-haired one—impatiently uttered.

"Quit tapping your feet. I would hate for you to crack the floor and get us in trouble for it." His green-haired partner—Emerald, I think—told him.

"Relax, these floors are designed to both durable and repairable." he responded, making Emerald roll her eyes before turning at me. "Anyway, guess who we bumped into again."

"Well if it isn't Jaune Arc." A soothing voice stated. "Fancy meeting you again. It seems that you have been making moves a couple of days ago." I stared back at the beautiful raven-haired leader complimenting me, doing my best not to flush out of embarrassment at flattering and her mention of that fiasco. Pyrrha turned her head to see who I was talking to, getting Cinder's attention. "And Pyrrha Nikos herself is here too."

"Uh, hello there!" Pyrrha greeted as she waved to her fellow Mistralis.

"It's an honor to finally meet you face to face. We're Team Cinnamon from Haven." Emerald said as she stirred near her partner and started covering his mouth. "Well, we prefer to call ourselves Team CMSN, but Cinnamon is fine I guess. By the way, my name is Emerald. This right here is Mercury, and this our leader, Cinder, and our other teammate, Nico!" she introduced her team as the very latter leaned in and joyfully waved at us.

"I see." Pyrrha nodded with her hand cupped to her chin. "It's nice to meet you, Team Cinnamon."

Mercury struggled out of Emerald's grasp and glared at her for a second before turning back at us. "Hey, you two did great back there. Never was a big fan of the White Fang myself. What a bunch of losers. Seriously, how are they going to achieve equality with that?" he said while his partner just rolled her eyes with a coy smile.

"Thanks, I guess. Couldn't just leave when I knew I could do something." I told them as it is some sort of response they would expect from the Humble & Courageous Jaune Arc.

"How brave, I can see why everyone is hailing you as a hero." Cinder cooed. "Why can't Huntsmen be more like you?"

"You'll be surprised to know how many people said that to me," I remarked as I scratched the back of my had and tried not to show my embarrassment. "I just did what a Huntsman would do."

"And you certainly show." she said as we continue to stare at each other. I was too stupefied by this woman's beauty and flattering that it wasn't until Pyrrha cleared her throat that I stopped spacing out.

"By the way, it's nice to meet you in person, Pyrrha. We're huge fans of your work and we look forward to seeing what you have in store for the tournament." Cinder cooed as she turned to her.

"You won't be disappointed," Pyrrha said before huffing

"Alright, students." Miss Goodwitch announced, grabbing all of our attention. "As you know, the Vytal Tournament will begin within a few weeks, and that only qualified teams are allowed to partake in it. Henceforth, the qualifiers will now begin. While some of you are sure to be in the Tournament, you still have to prove if you are absolutely worthy to be eligible to the most renowned tournament of the year, for we are looking for students who possess remarkable ability to show the world the capabilities of the Huntsmen of tomorrow."

I turned to Pyrrha and nodded to each other, I then looked at Ren and Nora who was unusually distant from our seats, with the latter giving a thumbs up with both of her hands and the former simply giving a disposed look.

"So let us begin the matches and show me on what you have learned these past months. This time, you will also be able to practice alongside students from other academies. Just remember that there is no competition as of yet. While you are to show your capabilities and prove your worthiness, you are still training. So please, keep these battles amiable while being as competent as you could." she said before she choosing the first participants for today. "The first match would be Oriana Sullivan and Sandy Graves of Team TOPS (Topaz) going against Lambert Forrester and Rusty Dalen of Team BFYR on a two-on-two match."

During the matches, I kept notes on the participant's fighting as usual—especially with the transfer students, who I hold little to no information about their fighting ability. Aside from that, I didn't remember that much since I wasn't invested in seeing who would win; I only cared about how I could win against them.

After a handful of matches, one of the last participants—Roy Stallion of Team BRNZ (Bronze) from Shade was getting dragged off from the arena after getting his butt handed by Sky Lark of all people. Yeah, you read that right; the very same guy who I remembered was the most timid member of Team CRDL.

"With that match, you are reminded to keep a distance from your opponent, especially if their weapon has a much longer range than yours." Miss Goodwitch advised to the crowd of students. "Since we are running short of time, we would like to reintroduce Miss Umi Hisakawa."

As soon as her name was called, we knew exactly how this was going to go. Once she started appearing to the arena, I noticed Brook Lane almost fainting at the mere sight of her.

"I see everyone seem to recognize her, save for the transfer students. Since you have all managed to come this far, you might finally be able to defeat her after she left all of you speechless at her introductory match. But before any of you will be able to prove that, she will have to be set up against an opponent who was already on par with her from the start, as they were almost never chosen for a single match so far when it was something we were all looking forward to."

Miss Goodwitch began facing toward my direction. I did my best to look calm while in a state of complete internal panic, until one reaffirming statement calmed me down in a matter of a second. "Pyrrha Nikos, would you kindly enter the arena?"

"Sure, professor." she said as she stood up.

"Good luck out there, Pyrrha." I nodded.

"I will, Jaune." she replied before stepping off from the seats and into the arena.

The two Mistralis silently stare at each other on the middle of the combat hall. The audience just sat by at the edge of their seats and gazed at the two warrior ladies, clearly anticipating for fast-paced action.

"You both know the rules. You are given 10 minutes to put your opponent's aura below 15% before the timer runs out. The match will begin…"

Blades resonated as they both unsheathed their respective weapons and went on their stances while keeping eye contact with one another as they wait for the professor's cue.

"…now."

When the match started, none of the two attacked; instead, they slowly circled each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Umi tried to startle her by feinting, but Pyrrha's amazing reflexes and discipline kept her unflinched.

Finding out that Pyrrha was playing defensively, Umi changed her tactics and abruptly threw blades from her fan. Pyrrha deflected them with her shield before noticing that Umi tried to sweep away her feet, making her leap back and began firing at her with her rifle, which Umi blocked with her fans as she walks slowly towards her. Pyrrha then changed her rifle to its javelin form and threw it at Umi, and since the javelin was too much for her fans to deflect, she jumped right away from it.

Pyrrha flew to retrieve Miló  **[3]**  and launched herself from the wall without touching the floor that would get her to lose by ring out. She changed her weapon to her xiphos mode before she used it to clash with Umi's bladed fans the moment she got next to her. The two fought in the center for superiority until Pyrrha managed to swipe away one of Umi's fans to the air. Umi didn't waste any time and leaped for her fan as Pyrrha changed her weapon back to a rifle and opened fire at her. Umi grabbed her fan at midair and used both of them to block off the gunshots as she descends towards her opponent. Pyrrha strafes back before Umi got to the ground where she started spinning toward her with blades knives being thrown to Pyrrha. Pyrrha deflected the blades by spinning her spear, making them fly around the arena, even hitting the transparent holographic walls that protect the audience. Once she was done, she raised her shield from the flurry of slashes from Umi's fans and pushed her back and threw the shield at her. Umi was able to jump on the shield and flew toward Pyrrha and attempted to strike her down but she rolled forward and grabbed her shield before firing twice to her last ammo. Pyrrha changed her weapon back to its xiphos form for quicker melee and engaged her once again, only this time, Umi was struggling to block off Pyrrha's swift slashes.

Umi was getting overwhelmed. Pyrrha's agility made it near-impossible for her to counter, and her shield barely gave her an opening. I know this because Ren, Nora and I once sparred with her, and not once were we able to beat her in a serious match. But Umi wasn't giving up yet, having enough of Pyrrha's offensive she leaped back, waved both of her fans she as takes off towards near the ceiling. Both Pyrrha and the audiences looked up at her as she summoned a whole mass of blades coming from her fans, forming a shape similar that of wings, she threw all of those blades towards Pyrrha. Pyrrha ducked with her shield as a hailstorm of a hundred blades falls towards her.

Unfortunately for Umi, she was barely scathed. Pyrrha stood up both gracefully and vigorously, sweeping away the blades on the floor as she walks forward and astonished the audience on how untouchable she was. Umi landed back to the ground, she lost her calm demeanor displayed clear agitation towards her opponent. The last thing I saw was Pyrrha smirk before black outlines surround both her hands, as well the blades around her before they rose from the ground and began pointing at their former owner. Umi just stood by with a horrified look before Pyrrha launched them at her, draining all of her remaining aura to the red.

"Woah." I heard Mercury utter after the last blade penetrated Umi's aura.

"Impressive." Cinder remarked.

Umi was lying on the ground when the bell rang and lights came back on. "And that's the match." Miss Goodwitch announced as she went back to the arena.

Pyrrha was noticeably panting, not because of the fight but because of how much she used her semblance. She did tell me that it took some meditation to get ahold of and control her polarity and that the more metal she holds, the more aura it uses.

Nora stood up and hollered. "Way to go, P-Money!"

The auditorium roared with applause after witnessing the victory from The Invincible Girl. For Beacon students, it showed how amazing she was after beating a senior that haunted us since the first day of combat training. Pyrrha just smiled and waved around the arena before walking to Umi and offered her hand, which she accepted. The two smiled to each other and Umi gave Pyrrha a bow of gratitude as her fellow Mistrali returned the gesture.

"Miss Nikos, that was incredible! It is without a doubt that you will be in the tournament." Miss Goodwitch said.

"Thank you, professor." Pyrrha nodded.

"You fought great too, Miss Hisakawa." Miss Goodwitch said to Umi. "You are dismissed. Miss Nikos, you may now return to your seat."

Umi bowed once again before leaving the premises as she fanned herself. Pyrrha went back sitting beside me a minute later.

"Pyrrha, that was great! I already know you are a great fighter but...wow!" I complimented. While it was not surprising given Pyrrha's record of being Goddess of Victory, I was still at a loss of words that it was the only thing I could say to her.

"Thanks, Jaune. Your support means a lot to me." she answered.

"Yeah," I said, restraining my own blush. "Just being a good partner."

"Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers?" Miss Goodwitch said as she looks at the audience before noticing a certain faunus who was still hooked up on her book. "Miss Belladonna?"

Startled, Blake abruptly shut her book closed and put her gaze to the Professor.

"You've been rather docile for the past few classes." Miss Goodwitch remarked, making Blake look away in shame. "Why don't you—"

"I'll do it," Mercury interjected as he raised his hand.

"Mercury, is it?" Miss Goodwitch asked as she adjusts her glasses before tapping her tablet. "Very well then. Mercury Black of Team CMEN from Haven Academy, you may now come down to the arena."

The audience began snickering as he stood up and went down, not only because of his team's name but rather because of how its unfortunately spelled. No wonder why they prefer being called CMSN.

"Students, I will not repeat myself; please stop this childishness at once! Might I remind you that none of you are on elementary anymore?" Miss Goodwitch growled.

The snickering stops. Mercury doesn't seem perturbed by it, in fact, he was just as amused. I cannot say the same for his teammates, who were covering their faces with their hands.

"I don't get it. What's so funny about cinnamon?" Ruby asked with confusion in her voice.

Oh Ruby, you poor little thing. You are obviously too pure for this godsforsaken planet.

"You'll understand when you're older, sis. For now, don't think about it and let's just see what's this dude's made of." Yang said to her sister.

"Now, let's find you an opponent." Miss Goodwitch said as she continued tapping on her tablet.

"Actually. I wanna fight…" Mercury stated before pointing at me. "Him."

"Me?" I gritted my teeth. I haven't fought on a sparring match since I beaten all of CRDL. I guess I couldn't avoid the spotlight after what I did two days ago.

"Yeah, you." he confirmed.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Arc?" Miss Goodwitch asked.

Well, it's too late to decline this now. "Uhh, no. I'd be happy to oblige." I answered.

"Very well, then. Jaune Arc of Team JNPR will be facing of Mercury Black of Team CMEN from Haven Academy." Miss Goodwitch announced. "Please come down the stage."

The audience applauded and began chanting my name, with some of the girls screaming out of admiration. Laughter over the latter team's name could still be audible, albeit muffled by the cheering.

"You can do it, Jaune." Pyrrha nodded.

"I'll be fine Pyrrha, but thanks anyway."

"Good luck out there, hero." Cinder said. "I should warn you; Mercury may not be the brightest, but his skills are undeniable."

"I'll keep that in mind then."

I grabbed my weapons and stepped into the arena. I went to my stance as Mercury walks to his side, smiling at me before going on his brawling stance. The two screens displaying our respective aura meters began appearing as all but one of the room's light began closing down while both of our eyes mutually gazed toward one another.

By the looks of it, Mercury is an unarmed fighter who primarily fights with kicking—judging by the guns attached on his boots. Looks like I already know what to do. I hope this guy has happy feet if he wants to win this.

"Show him who's boss, Fearless Leader!" Nora audibly cheered.

"You may begin!" Miss Goodwitch announced.

Mercury lunged and attempted to kick me as I block with my shield and push him back, making him flip back to where he started. I chose not to use my laspistol yet as I didn't want him to recognize my strategy that early, so I charged at him with my shield on my front as he tried to shoot me down with it. I got near him as I kept blocking his kicks with my shield as I tried giving a few slashes only for him to keep dodging them around. I bashed my shield to him, pushing him back once again.

Well, this guy was tougher than he looks. I guess Cinder was right when she mentioned of his skills.

Mercury spun as he jumped, once again giving another kick that I blocked with my shield, I began doing my best of skill avoiding his series of attacks before I rolled back and readied my shield again as he to struck me with a flurry of kicks before I rolled under one of his kicks while collapsing my shield and grabbing my gun from holster. I aimed my pistol and fired at him and he began swaying away from the laser fire before giving a flying kick which I avoided by side-stepping.

I was now parrying away his kicks as he tried to shoot me with it from time to time. He managed to strike me back, which was when I decided to set my plan to motion. I aimed my gun at his feet which he started tap dancing as an attempt to avoiding the lasers I fired as I rushed in closer and slashed him with his guard suppressed.

Once I knocked him down, he spun as he recovered quickly and flipped back away at a distance. Twirling my pistol back to my holster, I raised and expanded my shield and lunged at him. Mercury gave a dropkick on my shield, fired a round that launched himself back. I raised my sword and began charging at him, but immediately stopped after hearing at his statement when he stood up.

"I forfeit." Mercury declared as he turned to Miss Goodwitch.

"What?" I asked in bewilderment after pushing my own brakes and halted.

"I underestimated you." he said after he faced me once again. "I can see why they are calling you the hero everybody is talking about. It's fun and all, but I don't really think I could beat you."

I just stared at him at utter disbelief. He was doing well that I'm sure he could to defeat me, provided he had the right tactics and since I wasn't invincible like Pyrrha.

"If that's the case then I have to declare Jaune Arc to be the victor of this match. Marking the second time he won after his opponent declared themselves forfeit. Once again, a viable tactic in a hopeless fight, but I find your decision to forfeit to be very sudden Mr. Black; you still had a chance to defeat your opponent." Miss Goodwitch asserted.

"Eh, wasn't feeling it," Mercury responded. "Guy was leagues apart from me. Just wanted to challenge him for a bit before realizing he was too much to me."

"Well then, I advise you to pick your opponents more carefully from now on."

"Got it, teach," Mercury said as he walks away.

"That is all for today." Miss Goodwitch declared. "And remember, the dance is this weekend. But you all have your first mission on Monday. I will not accept any excuses."

Ah, yes the Sunday dance, which the way I saw it was a chance for students to celebrate and maybe get a date they never had before getting thrown off to a mission with a chance of actual death.

As I making my way out of the combat hall, I reunited with my team and Nora began gushing once again.

"Whoo~! Jaune Arc strikes again! Oh, it's wonderful to see you fighting again, Fearless Leader! You did great too, Pyrrha! You really showed that geisha chick. I can't wait for us to finally go on our first mission and fight alongside with you guys again!"

I could only smile at Nora's enthusiasm, even if she was excited for an assignment with a chance of death that varies on how hazardous the mission is.

We were heading out from the hallway when I once again crossed paths with that irritatingly alluring leader of Team CMEN.

"Why, you certainly don't disappoint." Cinder remarked. "I can see how both of you are the most talked-about freshmen in this academy. The Goddess of Victory and The Hero of Podunk, one who recently stopped a terrorist's robbery. You are shaping to be the freshman team of the year."

I was only able to stare at her, stupefied at her astounding beauty. "Oh boy, do we ever! The untouchable beauty, the bravest knight of them all, and the bestest of friends ever!" she said as she started hugging Ren at her side. "You might as well start calling us Team Awesome! Scratch that, we ARE Team Awesome! It's our second name! Don't care if it's not a color nor a name formed with our first letters. We're Team Awesome!"

I snapped out of my paralyzed state and was about to respond before Pyrrha came to my front and spoke on my behalf. "We appreciate your support very much. But for now, we got to go. See you later!" she said as she began dragging me away, with Ren and Nora following us as Cinder waved at me.

I did not bother asking why Pyrrha abruptly dragged me out as if she doesn't want me talking with her since I know that she would not rather talk about it.

"Pyrrha's jelly!" Nora said, which Pyrrha only responded by rolling her eyes. "Oh don't worry. It's understandable. I would have done the same thing if she tried to flirt with Ren. Who does she think she is that she could just take Jaune away from us?"

Well, whatever Cinder is planning with me, I really couldn't answer that myself.

**=o=**

  1. _If you read the excerpts from the last chapter, you'll know that Jaune's description of that event was inaccurate, since while the chase did happen on the highway, the battle actually occurred below it, with both Sun and Neptune being out of commission early. And the reason why no one approached us about the incident is that there was barely any footage that shown Team RWBY engaging the Paladin, and the eye-witnesses' description of everyone involved were vague. Also, Headmaster Ozpin persuaded the VPD to keep our identities anonymous, the same unfortunately cannot be said for Jaune, due to testimonies from several police officers and civilian witnesses confirming his and Pyrrha's presence at the bank heist._
  2. _Jaune's name is usually misspelled as "John Arc", due to how little reference journalists possessed aside from its pronunciation._
  3. _The name of Pyrrha's weapon, that is paired with her shield, Akoúo._



* * *

Leaving the hallway and into the school's campus, we were met with the friendly face of Neptune, behind him were two boys—who I correctly assumed to be his teammates.

"He-hey, look who's finally here!" Neptune said. "Jaune Arc and Pyrrha freakin' Nikos herself. The badasses of the week!"

"Good to see you again, Neptune. How have you been doing this past couple of days?" I said.

"Pretty good. Community service's not that bad. Met some lovely chicks on the streets while I was at it."

"And his supervisor yelled at him and told him to get back to work." the green haired one said.

"Yeah…" Neptune embarrassedly scratched the back of his head. "So anyway, these are my teammates; Scarlet and Sage." he said gesturing at the two, who looks just as boyband-ish as their teammates.

Scarlet was the red-haired one with the Albionic accent who has markings on his left eye, and had his red coat draped around over his left shoulder, wearing it as if it was some cape, while somehow not slipping or falling off  **[1]** ; Sage was the dark-skinned, green haired, shirtless, muscular man in an imposing stature clad in an unbuttoned longcoat while wearing no shirt underneath it, therefore, exposing his abs just like his leader.

"Together, we're Team SSSN (Sun)! Triple S's, and an N at the end, which by the way, is yours truly."

Look at that, another Team pronounced after their leader. It must be confusing to determine who's leading it if it weren't for one of their names. "Pretty weird being the only one whose name doesn't start with an 'S', don't you think?" I quipped. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you Scarlet, Sage. You already know me and my partner, this is Nora and Ren. We're Team JNPR."

"It's nice to finally meet you," Scarlet said. "I heard many great things about you. Is it true you stopped the bank robbery the same night you, Sun and Neptune got in trouble?"

"Yeah, that was me," I confirmed with a hint of shame. "I still couldn't have done it without Pyrrha's help."

"Don't mention it." Pyrrha nodded.

"You're really THE Pyrrha Nikos?" Sage said. "It's an honor to meet a warrior like you. How are you liking Beacon so far?"

"Thank you." she responded. "Beacon's great. The people here are very thoughtful, and my teammates are very supportive."

"That's good to hear. Even champions need to settle down, it's nice to know you're making yourself comfortable while trying to hold such record." Sage said.

"Indeed." she nodded.

"A world-renowned champion and a recent breakout hero. My-my, what a combination." Scarlet remarked. "I'm sure your two other teammates are no pushover either."

"Believe me. They're far from that." I commented.

"That's right! Anima's number one duo is behind Jaune and Pyrrha." Nora said as she put an arm over Ren's shoulder. "With his bravery and her strength and our undying friendship, we are nigh-unstoppable."

"It's true. While we are already remarkable from the start, Jaune's leadership has made us a force to be reckoned with." Ren added.

I could only smile at Ren's commendation. Too bad, it's only because I was smart enough to be pragmatic.

"You made yourself a good team, Jaune. Not saying Sun is a bad leader, but he could certainly learn a thing or two from you." Sage said.

"I appreciate that. Thank you."

"It was my pleasure."

Sun then walked in and reunited with his team, looking pretty distraught.

"So how did it go?" Neptune asked.

Sun groaned. "No luck. She's being much crankier than before. I thought she'd cheer up after the investigation that day but I think it made her worse. This is the first time we spoke since that night; I haven't seen her much since then."

Sigh, Blake still hasn't let go of Torchwick and the White Fang. I'm really worried for her. Her restlessness will soon be the end of her. Someone really needs to get that cat to settle down.

"It's fine, Sun. Maybe she's not in a good mood. You'll get her tomorrow." Neptune reaffirmed.

"Yeah, but she said she's not interested, and I don't think she'll be coming to the dance."

"Well, that sucks. Here's hoping she'll change her mind then."

"Yeah…" Sun uttered before turning to me. "Hey Jaune, how are you getting along with my team?"

"Pretty good. Quite the team you have here." I said.

"Thanks. I appreciate having these dudes on my back. Been working my butt off to making ourselves a functional team."

"Burdens of being a leader," I replied.

"You got that right." Sun chuckled. "Hey, could please try helping out Blake when you get the chance? She really looks like she needs help."

Trying to help a troubled Blake, part three. Here we go again. "Can't say no to that. I'm worried about Blake too."

"Good. Anyways, I think we should go now. It's our last day of community service and we'll be done sooner if start now." Sun stated. "You still have yours to worry about, right?"

"Yeah. Speaking of which; what can you tell me about the work they put you up with?" I asked.

"Eh, we've been mostly sweeping the street, occasionally they would send us to help out with the highway repairs," Sun answered. "But cleaning the streets gave me an idea. Once we get our first mission, we'll be no longer cleaning the streets from grime, but we're gonna clean the streets from crime. Team SSSN, Police Squad!" he puts his fists on his waist and posed buoyantly.

If that happens, I hope you don't end up investigating your own thefts. Solving that case would be awkward.

"Cool. Well, Professor Peach needs me and Team RWBY to clean up the dust lab for today, so I'll be sure to check up on her while I'm at it."

"Great! See ya' later." he said as he and his teammates turn around and left.

"You too! It was nice knowing your team!" I said to him before facing my team. "Yeah, I really need to go to the dust lab, they're expecting me after classes are done."

"Well, good luck then. Just remember we have training later, so don't push yourself too hard, okay?" Pyrrha reminded as she put a hand on my shoulder.

"I won't forget," I reassured her before walking away. "See you!"

As I separated myself from my teammates, I headed straight towards the Dust Lab which was on the other building. Upon arriving, Professor Peach was waiting for me and Team RWBY was already there. Ruby was sweeping off particles, Weiss was organizing the dust, Yang was washing the vials, and Blake was wiping the tables clean.

"Ah, there you are, Mr. Arc. As you see, the dust lab has been a mess after the recent experiment by some of the teams. Suffice to say, that experiment was unsuccessful."

This is probably one of the reasons why Dust Studies is my weakest and least favorite, even though I learned to appreciate the use of the dust this past week. "Was anyone hurt?" I inquired more out of curiosity than concern as I looked around and saw a wall that has a huge black scorch mark with the middle being untouched in the shape of someone's figure. After seeing that, my question was more or less answered.

"As you could see, the students responsible are currently at the infirmary. Some are just there to be examined for possible infection, but for the others…" her voice "You already know that experimenting dust can be very dangerous without proper procedure."

"I see," I gulped for a second. "What am I supposed to do for now?"

"You see that wall over there?" she said, pointing to the scorched wall. "Here's a sponge and a bucket of water. You know what to do."

"I'll get to it then, Professor." I nodded as I took the utilities needed to clean the wall.

I went over the wall and looked at the it for a few seconds. I removed my gloves and began scrubbing away its burnt marks. The black stain was arduous to remove that it took a ridiculous amount of scouring to remove it, keep in mind that this was one big mark which would have been a bigger pain if the unfortunate idiot didn't stand there and indirectly helped me by blocking a portion of the wall.

As I was in the middle of the process, my hands were already sore from the firm scrubbing. Ruby passed me by, sweeping the floor with a broom.

"Hey." I greeted.

"Hey, Jaune."

"You okay?" I asked. I can tell that every time she's doing labor, she's thinking about the civilians she couldn't save that night. She came to Beacon to make the world a better place, and it's no mystery why she's upset about those people."

"I'm fine. Thanks."

"So, how's Blake?"

"Not good. She barely ate and slept, and has been shunning us away every time we tried to tell her to knock it off."

"Torchwick and the White Fang still bothering her?"

"I think so. It's been driving her insane. I thought those feelings would go away after we tried to help, but it looks like she's gotten worse. Every time we're done with our work, she would often sneak out to continue her investigation with or without our help. Even though Professor Ozpin and the detective told us to lay low since the White Fang could be looking for us. I don't think she's going to give herself a break until all of this is done."

I sighed as I shook my head. "It's going to take a while for Torchwick and the White Fang to be put to justice. The police said they're doing their best to take them down. I take it Blake's not going to the dance?"

"Probably not. She refused to participate in anything. The only thing that could cheer her up is her books. I really want her to go to the dance; it's a chance for her to settle down since I think we're getting close into finding out what the White Fang is up to." she said before looking at Blake, who looked frozen before realizing that her eyes were shut. "Speaking of which."

"I'll go talk to her," I said as I put the soap down.

Ruby went back to sweeping the floor as I went to approach Blake.

"Blake?"

Her sleep-deprived eyes immediately began blinking open as she turned to me. Though, they were noticeably struggling to stay open. "Oh, hey. Do you need something?" she weakly asked.

"Nothing really. Just making sure you're alright."

"I'm fine. Now just leave me alone." she said while she barely made any effort to hide her fatigue.

"No, you're obviously not." I asserted. "Just tell me what's wrong."

"Jaune, please. You have done enough for me as it is and I appreciate it. Now please, just go. I really need some space."

"Come on, Blake, you've been pushing yourself for days now that you can barely keep yourself awake. Maybe, you need rest for once."

"The White Fang doesn't rest, Jaune." she raised her tone. "They won't stop until they get what they want. So if I were to stop them then, there's no reason for me to rest either."

"Blake, you're not the only one who can stop the White Fang. Just let the police take care of it, they're trying their best to—"

"They don't know the White Fang like I do!" she suddenly yelled. Making all three of her teammates in the room put their attention at us. "At best, they'll only just slow them down for a small margin, and even that will take too much work for them!"

She puffed at as she stared it while I remained aback at her sudden outrage. She exhaled after a few seconds and calmed down. "I'm sorry. It's been a stressful week. I just can't afford let the White Fang make bad names for us faunus every passing second."

"Blake..."

"Please just leave me be."

I guess at this point, the White Fang has affected her drastically that there is no way to change her mind. "If that's what you want," I said before going back to cleaning the wall.

She can't keep acting like this forever though. Blake will eventually have to give in and stop being adamant about this investigation. I don't think I'll be able to convince her now, so I'll just leave everything for nature to do its magic.

In our favor, hopefully.

**=o=**

  1. _He does remove it during combat, however._



* * *

Blake's current issues crossed her off as one of the candidates I've considered partnering with on the upcoming extracurricular. Which is a shame because I want to use this opportunity to get to know her better and be much closer since we didn't talk much last semester aside from its last day. I'm still trying to decipher why she even kissed me on the cheek that night.

Which leaves Pyrrha to be the only logical choice to be my date at the dance; she was the first person to come out of my mind when looking for someone to be paired with anyway.

Cinder was my second choice, but I'm not really comfortable on dancing with someone who's into me because of my fraudulent reputation. Oh, who am I kidding? Anyone who's even interested in someone like me was because of my fraudulent reputation. Not to mention, a girl with looks like her all but says that she is already taken.

Ruby would have been fine if she didn't look like much of a jailbait and I don't want everyone to start thinking I'm a creep who looks like he is trying to take advantage of the youngest girl in school. Plus, she's probably married to her scythe—which could be why it has the same last name as her, and I'd hate to be a home-wrecker.  **[1]**

Yang's a ton of fun, but I doubt that anyone who dated her has lasted for more than a week. That, and she looked like she'd pass as one of my sisters, making it too awkward to be romantically involved with her. It's pretty much why I don't usually date fellow blondes. Yeah, I know that three of my sisters are brunettes, but that's a little different.

Weiss is out for obvious reasons, and even if I'm interested in her, it's pretty clear how she would respond. Seriously, what good am I to her? I already blew my last chance by not helping her out last Tuesday, and she'll be too busy being lovestruck on pretty boy Neptune anyway. Not to mention, I can sense that some people will paint me as the worst person ever and want me dead just because I asked her out for whatever dumb reason. Wouldn't want her army of white-knights to come after me.

So it's pretty much decided that I'm going with Pyrrha. I still have a lot to make up for her, so this is my best chance. I'll ask her once I'm finished training with her.

Sparring with Pyrrha has been informative as always, as we get to learn about each other's fighting styles which cannot be obtained the same way by just simply watching. Being the Invincible Goddess of Victory she was, I still was not able to beat her in a straight-up match even if she does hold back. Her attack patterns cannot be predicted and even if you somehow managed to do so, she still barely gives you the chance to land a hit on her.

So it was no surprise that I lost to her again.

"Splendid fighting, Jaune!" Pyrrha complimented as I helped myself up and dusted off my hind "You're doing great as always. You definitely won't be having any trouble with your first mission."

"You never get tired, do you?" I playfully remarked, wiping away my own sweat. "Thanks, but I could have done better."

"Oh, don't be like that." she said. "You're an amazing fighter; everyone can see that."

"I know, but I felt like missed something."

"You're not missing anything, Jaune. In fact, I think you were getting close to beating me. That's not something I say every day."

"Well, you were holding back, so I could get the chance to beat you—but you didn't have to, I won't be able to beat you anyway."

"What are you talking about, Jaune? I'm not holding back. Sure, we aren't allowed to use our guns and this match is purely melee, but I fought you with all my might and you still did well against me. Are you saying you're not good enough?"

"I…" I hesitated to answer, glancing at my side and looking for a way to change the subject in trepidation.

"Jaune…"

"No, it's not that Pyrrha. I think I just lost focus because there was something I've been aching to tell you." I answered as I changed the subject. I don't want her giving me any undeserved comfort, so I'll just get to the point.

"Well, what is it then? I'm listening." she said, leaning closer.

Here we go. This shouldn't be much of a problem, given that I have asked girls out before and Pyrrha wasn't any different despite her social status. I've been with her long enough to know that things will be fine. "Will you accompany me at the dance?"

Her eyes widened as her face flushed while she glancing at the ground, cupping her chin before coming with an answer. "I'll be glad to."

"Oh, so great. I think we can get back to business now." I said, shrugging off all of the potential awkwardness seeing as I finally have the answer I needed.

"Yeah, but…" she uttered. "That was a bit sudden. Not saying that I'm embarrassed by it or anything. I just… didn't expect you'd ask me out. I mean, nobody has asked me out before."

While I knew she hasn't been taken yet and that she would have told me if she was or I could have at least found out, I was rather bewildered at that revelation. Normally, with a girl like her, I expected her to have been asked at least once. "Why is that? You're Pyrrha Nikos. Guys would literally throw themselves for you."

"It's because…" she stuttered before she exhaled and shook her head. "Never mind. It's nothing important. I think we've practiced enough. We already know that we're ready for our first mission."

I just stood there and stared at her, processing what she was implying earlier. "So… we're done?"

She nodded. "We have done everything we need. Keep up the good work and maybe we'll finally unlock your semblance."

I chuckled. I kept forgetting about that until someone mentions it. I've been here for months now, and I still don't have a semblance. Oh well, maybe I'll get it soon enough. Thankfully, I could live without it, seeing as I'm able to be prepared for just about anything.

"You're coming with me?" she asked.

"No, I'll catch up."

"Okay then." she nodded before turning back and headed to the exit. "Later, Jaune!"

I took a deep breath as I watch her leave the rooftop. After she was gone, I continued to space out, just enjoying my time alone and mumbling that I was able to ask Pyrrha out that easily. Even if I managed to successfully ask girls out previously, I still can't help but feel anxious. Thankfully, the dance itself won't be much of a problem for me; I already attended enough social events to know what to do.

I decided to call Viola out for some advice. So I pulled out my scroll and contacted her for a video call.

"Ah, Jaune. You finally called." Viola greeted as soon I saw her face on my screen.

"Evening, Vi. Looking fine and dandy as usual. I could smell your perfume by just looking at you." I snarked, my nose picking the memory of her fragrant scent.

She chuckled at that. "Yeah, that's how fabulous I am." she snidely replied. "How are you doing there? Did you finally found someone to dance with?"

"Yep~" I popped.

"Oh. So, who is the girl in question?" she asked with blatant curiosity.

"I think you already guessed who."

She paused for a moment before realizing who it is and started squealing. "I knew it! Our baby brother is finally becoming a man!" she cried out before turning to her left. "Hey Rouge, Jaune finally asked Pyrrha Nikos out!"

"He did? Ho-lee shit!" Rouge said in Viola's background before she appeared in my screen shortly after our elder sister called her.

Dammit, Vi. You really had to tell her, didn't you?

"You fucking did it, lil' bro! You're still a huge dork to me and will always be—but man, you're finally getting in with the freaking cereal girl."

"Rouge, please calm down. I only asked her out for the dance as partners. I'm not dating my 'cereal waifu' or anything." I told to her.

"That's still a score for you! Might want to start showing your  _sword skills_ and I'm not talking about the Crocea Mors." she perversely suggested.

"Rouge!" I yelled. You think after enduring almost my whole life with Rouge that I would have gotten used to her juvenile humor, but she always finds a way to be annoying and succeed.

"C'mon, Jaune-Jaune. There's nothing to be ashamed of here. You're living the dream of every horny boy—and maybe some girls—who watched the amazing Pyrrha Nikos; you should consider yourself lucky." Rouge said.

"Except its nothing like  _that~_ ," I told her tensely. "This is only for the dance, which is only this Sunday. I just want use this event to know my own partner a little better since I'm stuck with her for my entire stay here."

"So you're saying that you consider dating her after you're done with that?"

I gave up and slapped my increasingly red face with my free hand. No point in trying to sway Rouge's thoughts given it's too full of chaotic mischief.

"Okay, that's enough, I think you've embarrassed him a little too much," Viola said. "So, you still have the suit I sent you?"

"Yeah. It still fits me like a glove. Still brings some disturbing memories, then again that was a satisfying night." I said as I winked at Rouge, who responded with a smirk. "Hopefully, this upcoming night will be much more sincere than that."  **[2]**

"Don't worry; I'm sure she's far better than that." she reaffirmed.

"Good point," I said. Pyrrha was just too much of a saint to be compared to that pompous bitch.

"Now, you also have the other thing that came out with it?" she asked.

Right, that. "Yes, and it was unnecessary on your part. I'm pretty sure Pyrrha won't have any trouble finding something to wear. Hell, I think she already had one right now."

"Oh, it's not that. You know what is that for~" she teased as she gave the same grin she sports when she gave me a gender-inappropriate makeover.

Oh for crissake. This again. "I see. It's a shame that I have no reason to humiliate myself in public with it." I quipped. "Would have worn it for a lost bet, but I'm not a gambling man."

"I didn't say you have to embarrass yourself. Just giving it to you for old time's sake. Be sure to send us a picture of you wearing it."

"I'd rather eat my own head, thank you very much." Sorry folks, but the graceful beauty of Jane Arc will not make a comeback any time soon, probably never.

"What a shame. You're becoming less fun since you've attended. What's Beacon doing to you?"

"Frankly, I really don't know. My thoughts are giving me mixed messages about this school."

'Well, if you're not dressing yourself up. I'm bringing your album and I'm showing it to your friends—when I finally find it, at least." Rouge said.

"If you do, be sure to burn to the last two pages. You can keep the rest and embarrass me if you want. I have been through worse, you know."

They all lost their smiles and all semblance of joy suddenly disappeared after my last statement. "You didn't have to think about that, Jaune," Viola said.

"I wish I didn't," I said, doing my best to preserve my composure. "Let's forget about that, shall we? After all, it's the last thing we want to bring up. So, any advice for the dance?" I asked just in case. Viola was engaged recently, and if anyone knows a thing a two about romance aside from Dad and Bleu, it's her.

"Just be in your best behavior. Aside from that just be yourself. I think you got it all figured out; it's not as bad as dating, it'll be a walk in a park for you.

That's it? I should have thought that, and I wouldn't have to this call in the first place. Last time I had a formal dance was at Bleu's wedding, so it's been a while that I almost forgot it wasn't actually that hard. Oh well, it was nice talking to my sisters again after days of leaving home.

"Don't listen to her. Go nuts and make some fireworks on that joint; huntresses love that shit." Rouge childishly proposed, making Viola roll her eyes from her.

"I think I already have everything I need to know," I said.

"Very well. Just make sure to take good care of her okay? Celebrities like her tend to be tired of the weight they're carrying."

"I will. Thanks, Vi."

"Best of luck out there." she said with a warm smile.

"Ey, you know who to talk to when you're feeling down, okay?" Rouge said as she cuts in; this time, lacking her typically smug tone in favor of affirming sincerity.

I smiled at her closing statement. "I won't forget that," I said, nodding as they smiled back and ended the feed.

I puffed as I put my scroll back to my pocket and headed back to my dorm. It's reassuring that my sisters still have my back in times like these. They may enjoy tormenting me because I'm their only little brother, but they're still my sisters first and foremost.

When I opened the door, the first thing I saw was Nora standing on the way, grinning, just like I predicted.

"Yeah, Nora. I get it. We're going to the dance together as a team." I said. It's not even an intuitive guess that Nora would be partnering with Ren this Sunday; anyone who possesses a single brain cell already knows that.

"Does that really mean Arkos is happening?" she asked excitedly.

I wasn't able to answer since I was dumbfounded at the anomalous term. "Arkos?"

"It's your last name put together with Pyrrha's! Isn't it clever?"

"Well, it's more creative than 'Renora', if you ask me," Ren commented, who was busy reading something with the Yin & Yang symbol at the cover. Pyrrha meanwhile, was just sitting on her bed, eavesdropping while she nervously smiles.

I already knew what that was all about. I would have remained stupefied and oblivious by it had not I familiarized myself with portmanteau couple names through Viola's terrible taste in literature.

"Oh, hush now, my dear Ren," Nora said to her partner before turning back to me. "You made a great decision by choosing your own partner instead of any of those role-players from Team RWBY. Now, Team Awesome will be together forever!"

As much as I hate to ruin her fun, I don't want her getting her hopes up for this. "Slow down, Nora. I'm only asking her out for the dance, but I'll promise that I'll keep this team together as long we're here, you understand?"

"Okay then!" she nodded. "Just make sure you give her what she deserves, Fearless Leader!" she then skipped back to her bed and began conversing with Ren.

I began to go to my desk and went to study my notes and update this journal while glancing to Pyrrha from time to time. Every time we made eye contact with each other—we couldn't help but blush, as we still could not believe that we partnered with each other.

I overheard Ren and Nora talking about the animal code words for their team attacks since the portmanteau naming gave them an idea to theme their dynamic to something. For some reason, Ren suggested a bee's buzz as their signal, but Nora doesn't seem to like that.

"Ugh, Ren, I don't like bees!" Nora groaned, pulling both of her lower eyelids down as she rolled her eyes upward. "They're disgusting, annoying and they sting! I wish they could just all buzz off. They deserve to have their honey taken away from them."

"Okay then. How about bears? You like bears, don't you? Plus, they're a hive's worst nightmare." Ren proposed.

"That's more like it!" Nora chirped up. "Make it like a panda—it suites us both well!" Looking back, I saw her clutching the teddy bear Ren won for her the other day on her chest, putting a smile on my face.

They continued to talk about a few until Nora asked him a question. "Hey, Ren. I'm not suggesting anything, but do you think that Headmaster Ozpin uses the partnering system to create romantic couples? Not saying that it means we should be together-together or anything but do you ever get the feeling?"

Ren made a chuckle, which got my attention and Pyrrha's because it's not often you hear Lie Ren laugh. "Of course not, Nora, that would be unprofessional and just downright nonsensical. But I'm still glad that we ended up together."

"Yeah, you're right," Nora muttered. "It was silly for me to think that."

"You think of silly things all the time."

"Yeah, true." she giggled.

"And honestly, that's what I like about you," Ren stated. "Without you, I would have forgotten what happiness feels like. So, I thank you for staying with me for all these years."

"Aww." Nora cooed. "C'mere you." she began putting Ren in a tight embrace, which was considered very friendly if you ignore Nora spooning him.

I couldn't help but smile at the sweet sight. Maybe a little too sweet that's it's becoming suggestive, so I cleared my throat and put the two back to their senses.

Nora quickly let go of Ren and flushed. "We're still not together-together!"

Sure you're not.

I shook my head and smirked to Pyrrha who smiled back and shrugged before I went back to my business. I really need to work on my dynamic with Pyrrha—there's so much potential between the two of us, that I'll need to start strengthening our bonds together at this dance.

**=o=**

  1. _While Ruby does have a passion for weapons, Jaune is clearly making a joke here. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if she did marry the Crescent Rose_.
  2. _He was referring to his former date with Selene Raine, who turned out to be using him for a bet. He eventually found out her true motives and then humiliated her with the help of Rouge. A fuller account will be uploaded to the Extras section soon._



* * *

It was Saturday. Since there were no classes, Team RW_Y and I spent almost the entire afternoon on community service. After hours of cleaning, renovating and assisting the staff, we went to organize the ballroom for tomorrow's dance as our last assignment for the day, even though this was already assigned to Team CFVY (Coffee). But then again, they just arrived early from their week-long mission, so I suppose they're too tired to organize the ballroom for an activity they are not invited to.

We were told that to provide a balance of a formal soiree and a youth's dance night; something with the likes of a school's prom party, which it kinda is. Likewise, Weiss handled the formal stuff with Yang in charge of the party equipment while Ruby and I assisted both of them. Blake was nowhere to be found since she called in sick, Miss Goodwitch allowed her to take a day off but still holds the hours she has to make up for.

Weiss and Yang can go a little too overboard with their respective arrangements that it's going astray from the intended plan. With Weiss trying to make the ballroom a little too sophisticated, and Yang planning to make the ballroom too much of a dance club, which led to arguments thanks to creative differences. Ruby and I had to act as mediators; diffusing conflicts and make compromises to ensure balance with ballroom's organization.

I was in charge of arranging the chairs and tables as well as helping out with the decorations. While was at the middle of it I heard a loud thump after Yang put down a large speaker. I looked at the Yang who conversing with her sister who was resting her head on the table, either because she was tired or was still thinking about last Tuesday; either way, she doesn't seem to be really feeling it.

Gods, this team is a mess. I thought they'd be better than last semester but I don't think their issues are going to let any of that happen.

"Weiss! I thought we agreed; No doilies!" Yang scolded as she saw Weiss put fancy mats on the tables.

"If I don't get doilies, you don't get fog machines!" Weiss responded as she bolted near her.

"I don't think they're both necessary," I said. "The dance is going to fine without them. We're neither organizing a cocktail party or a disco ball."

"I know we're not, but it's still a dance. And what's to set the mood and put some haze on the floor?" Yang stated.

The door suddenly opened as Sun and Neptune walked in with all heads turning at them, "Your dance is gonna have fog machines?" Neptune asked.

"Nah, it's too much," I answered. "Besides, Weiss wanted this to be a bit more—"

"We were thinking about it!" Weiss said as she suddenly steps in and covered my mouth with the cold hands of hers.

"That's pretty cool," Neptune said as I put Weiss' hand away and glared at her, she folded her arms and looked away from me and harrumphed.

Looks like someone's trying to impress her boyfriend.

"You ladies all excited for dress-up?" Sun asked.

"Pfftt... Yeah, right!" Ruby scoffed, someone just doesn't like fancy dresses.

"Laugh all you want. I'll be turning heads tomorrow night!" Yang boasted.

Not forcefully, I hope.

"What are you two wearing?" Weiss inquired to the duo.

"Uhh... this?" Sun gestures to his open shirt which still doesn't have anything underneath.

"Nice suit, then." I snarked.

"Ignore him for he knows not what he says," Neptune said as he stepped up and put a hand in front of Sun's face.

Sun swiped his partner's hand away. "Hey, I may have moved to Mistral, but I grew up in Vacuo. It's not exactly a shirt-and-tie kind of place." he defended.

"Yeah, we noticed," Yang stated, looking unimpressed as her teammates.

"So where's Blake?" he asked. "I noticed she isn't around when she should be working with you guys."

"She excused herself so she could keep looking into the White Fang," Weiss answered in an annoyed tone. "She still refuses to let her mission go."

Sun made a sorrowful sigh. "So she's still being all, you know... Blakey?"

"Obviously."

"I still can't think of a way to change her mind," Ruby said.

"Me neither," I added.

"Of course," Sun sighed and glanced on the ground. "What did I expect?"

"Guys," Yang called. "Trust me; Blake will be at the dance tomorrow." she said confidently.

"How can you be so sure about that?" I skeptically asked, "She's been burning the candle at both ends since that night, and I don't she'll think have the intention to stop anytime soon."

"You're being too cynical, Vomit Boy." she replied as she pulls out a laser pointer, "I'm gonna convince her, starting with this bad boy." she began demonstrating it a nearby wall.

I raised my brow and everyone stared at Yang with confused looks. "You sure about that?"

"Relax, I know what I'm doing." Yang reaffirmed. "Once Blake shows up, none of you will think I'm crazy anymore."

"I hope your right," I muttered. Though, I doubt that proving to be able to convince Blake makes her less insane; in fact, it only makes her more insane, considering how adamant Blake is. Hopefully, she won't use her typical methods of persuasion, I know she wouldn't use it on her own teammates but one should remember that Yang was not known for using her mouth in convincing people.

"So, do you guys need any help?" Neptune asked.

"We're good. We're almost done. Besides, you guys earned your break after finally completing your sentence."

"Oh, it's nothing. It was just three days worth of glorified chores but thanks anyway." Neptune said before turning to me. "Jaune, if you don't mind—meet us at the courtyard when you're done. There's something we want to talk to you about."

"Fine by me." I nodded.

"Later, then," Sun said as they both turned around and left the building.

"So you were saying that you're not wearing a dress tomorrow?" Yang asked her little sister.

"C'mon sis. Isn't my outfit not already a dress enough?"

"No, it's not." Weiss asserted. "No offense, Ruby, but those aren't tasteful enough to count."

"Weiss-cream's right, Rubes. That skirt of yours won't be grabbing any boys' attention." Yang said.

"Which is why I'm taking you to Vale and shop with me for clothes once we're done with this assignment," Weiss stated.

Ruby tried protesting. "Weiss, I don't think that's—"

"Shush. As your partner, you are going shopping with me… AND YOU'RE GOING TO LIKE IT!" she snapped.

Ruby groaned and went back to resting her head on the table. I decided to leave them with their girl talk and went back to business. There was still work to be done.

I left the dance hall and went to the courtyard where Sun and Neptune are waiting for me. I was somewhat hesitant since agreeing to go with them last time got me involved in that fiasco, but I highly doubt that they want to go through all that again, especially since they just finished their sentence just recently.

"So what are you two planning to do this time?" I asked them.

"Well, since Blake's not coming to the dance, I was thinking maybe you could help me out a bit," Sun answered. "I could use another wingman."

Although I'm glad that it didn't involve following Blake again and getting dragged into more life-threatening bullshit, I still questioned myself why I even bothered coming here. "Wingman? So you're telling me to help you find a date?"

"Pretty much." he answered. "I should already be glad to have Neptune at my back, but I think I'll have a better chance if you come along."

"How exactly?" I raised my brow and asked.

"Duh," Neptune spoke up. "Girls have been drooling all over you ever since you stopped the robbery. With your help, we'll be able to take a girl out for tomorrow. You have a date by now, have you?"

"Yes…" I hesitantly confirmed. "Yes, I do."

"Cool. Who is she anyway?"

"It's Pyrrha," I said as I caught my breath.

They both grinned with impressed looks on their faces. "Freaking A," Neptune remarked. "Though coming from you that's hardly surprising."

"I take it you have a date too?" I inquired.

"Nah, not yet." he answered confidently. "I'm still considering my options."

"He actually needs your help as much as I do since every girl he asked out turned him down." Sun teasingly corrected.

"Shut up, dude. I'm was only practicing my charm. It's not my fault they're nervous around someone as handsome as me." he defended, but if his initial tone was any indication, he's not really much of a chick magnet as he looks.  **[1]**

"Yeah, sure." Sun scoffed before turning back to me. "So, are you up for it or not?"

A couple of pretty-boys asking help from me—some scraggly **[2]**  dork with confusing luck—to pick up girls. I'm definitely losing my mind and agreeing to go only proved that further. "I don't see why not." I forced a smile.

"I knew we could count on you, my man." he pumped. "Let Operation: Babe Hunt commence!"

Hoo boy, this might not end well, I thought. If they couldn't think of a more original name for this imminent farce, then it is doomed from the start unless we somehow managed to appease Lady Luck herself.

We strolled around the Beacon campus, looking for first-year girls to pick-up. There were plenty of girls we met that we took to consideration, but most of them were either already taken, not into guys, or were upperclassmen who weren't eligible since it was made clear that the dance was an event only for freshmen.

Looking for available girls in Beacon was more challenging than we anticipated. It wasn't until I spotted two elegantly dressed girls conversing on a bench that we managed to find suitable candidates. After a quick eavesdrop, their demeanors and appearance indicated that they were from Atlas. One of them noticed me and gave me a wave as she looked at me.

I flushed before quickly shaking it off and turned to Sun. "You don't happen to be into Atlesian girls, do you?"

"I would if it weren't for their attitude towards the faunus." he said.

"I see what you're coming from, but isn't it just as insensitive to assume all Atlesians are like that?"

"I know but I'd rather not take my chances. Besides, I prefer girls from Mistral and Vacuo." he said before spotting four Vacuan girls in a distance. "Speaking of which."

We all turned toward that particular group, where all members were no short of beautiful. Neptune wolf-whistled to the quartet of rather attractive women. "They look as hot as the desert they live in."

Looking closer at the colorful female quartet, I recognized the two of them to be Nebula and Dew—the same two girls who approached me last Monday. It was better to let Sun and Neptune approach them without me because I'll just end up spoiling their chance since those two seem to be crushing on me.

"I'll go first." Sun rubbed his hands. "Any advice?"

"Just remember that girls are people too; they can get nervous just as much as us when we're asking them out," I stated with my past dating experiences that have an arbitrary degree of success.

"You seem to know what you're talking about," Neptune remarked.

"I've done this before." Like a lot, but that's something I'd rather not explain further.

"Well then, it's good to have you with us then," Sun said. "Now it's time to put my swag on."

"Just remember to be confident, but not too confident," I told him.

"Relax. I can do this. I'm a big guy."

"Yeah. For you." Neptune quipped.

"Watch."

Sun cleared his throat walked over toward the group. Neptune and I hid behind the corner and watched Sun's attempt at courting.

"Hey, uh, I-I can't help notice, you girls," Sun said after approaching them. "I see you're from Vacuo then."

The girls glanced at each other in confusion. "That's right." Nebula said. "And you are?"

"Sun Wukong. You may have heard of Team SSSN, have you?"

"No… I can't say we have." the gray-haired one responded.

I couldn't see Sun's expression since he was facing behind me, but I could tell he was disappointed upon his lack of recognition.

"Well, feel free to look us up," Sun suggested. "You won't be disappointed. We do it all. Aside from hunting Grimm, we do music, acting, modeling, community work, all kinds of stuff!"

The girls continue to look perplexedly at him. "Uhh, cool." Nebula said. "We'll be sure to check that out… Uhm..."

"Sun Wukong?" he reminded.

"Right… Sun. It was cool meeting you and all, but we need to head back to our dorms." she stated as she leads her group past him. "Until we meet again, I guess."

We watched as they ditch Sun and started walking to our direction. Neptune began shaking his head. "Sunny, Sunny, Sunny. You're just not using that monkey brain of yours. Let me show you how it's done." he fixed his collar and got out of cover before walking toward the girls.

"Neptune, wait!" I said as I followed him. That turned out to be a mistake as the four girls began facing my direction and gasped in joy.

Figures.

Neptune mistakenly thought the hysteria was directed towards him. "Settle down, ladies. I know that I—" the girls then ran past Neptune, leaving him frozen in place as they approached me.

"Is it really him?!" the red-haired girl excitedly asked as the girls group up on me. "Are we facing the Hero of Podunk with our very own eyes?!"

"Oh, yes, it's definitely him!" the gray-haired one stated.

"It's good to finally see you again!" Nebula squealed. "We heard about what you did in the city the other day. Man, you and Pyrrha were awesome!"

I was caught in a trap of admirers and the only thing I could do was engage in an amicable conversation while restraining my blush even if it's not as severe as theirs. "Good to see you too," I said, trying to put on a mask of confidence. "Enjoying Beacon so far?"

"We're loving it," Dew spoke up. "Especially with someone like you around."

I gave a smile as I did my best to restrain my embarrassment to these cute girls as they gush about on a position I'm not worthy of.

"Oh, and we like you to meet our teammates." Nebula said before indicating the two other girls beside her and Dew. "This is Octavia and Gwen. Say hi to Jaune, girls."

"H-hi!" the gray-haired one, Gwen said. "I-It's an honor to meet you, Jaune Arc."

"Y-You're pretty cool!" Octavia—the redhead, spurted. "D-Don't get the wrong idea, though! I only just met you." she flushed as she tried looking away. It was pretty obvious, however, that she has the hots for me as much as I'm having trouble believing it.

"Oh, Octy. As spicy as ever." Dew gave a Cheshire grin as she teased her. "You just don't want him realizing that you want to take him to tomorrow's dance, do you?"

"S-Shut up! You said you wanted to dance with him too you know!" Octavia retorted.

"I-I did?" Dew pondered as her face grew as red as her friends, and she was already blushing to begin with. "I know he's cool and all but—"

"Girls, calm down. If anyone here is going to the dance with him then it'll be me." Nebula asserted. "I met him first, and it's my obligation as the leader of Team NDGO (Indigo) to take his hand."

"Oh, come on now, Nebula," Gwen called out. "You already had your fun with him the other day and you can't just hog him all to yourself. Besides, he deserved to be partnered with someone who is proven to be a proficient dancer such as myself."

"As if!" Dew exclaimed. "Besides, this was my idea on the first place, so it should be me to take his hand.

"I thought you didn't want to dance with him!" Octavia replied.

"And I thought you said you only met him!"

"I know but I—!"

"Ladies~," Neptune said as he stepped in, putting the girls to a halt as they put their attention to him. "I heard you're all looking for someone to dance with; I happen to be available myself."

The girls all just stared at him with unsure faces before Nebula spoke up. "Okay...?"

"Name's Neptune Vasilias; a charmer, a brilliant inventor, a valedictorian, and also formidable of the arts of Grimm hunting." he boasted as he grinned at them, showing off his pearly white teeth.

"Right..." Dew uttered. "Sorry, but we're not interested," then they all turned back to me, much to his chagrin.

"Oh come on! You have got to be kidding me!" Neptune whined as the girls ignored him.

Sorry, guys, but I have no control over these girls. If it was up to me, I'll have them fawning over you instead, but sadly, fate begs to differ right now.

"Now where were we?" Nebula asked, glancing at all of her teammates.

"The part we decided that he's coming with me," Gwen claimed.

"Oh hell no, he is coming with me!" Octavia said.

"No, me!" Dew said.

"Me!" the girls screamed at each other.

"Girls, girls," I said, calming the quartet and putting them away off each other's throats. "I appreciate all of your offers; I really do, but I already have a date for tomorrow."

The girls all whined in disappointment but quickly cheered up in understanding. "Well, good to know then." Nebula sighed. "Sorry for asking. We should have known that someone like you already has a partner by now."

"It's fine. We all make mistakes." I smiled at them. "But if you're looking for a partner, my friends of mine happen to be available."

The four paused as they started to muse, not even turning back as Sun and Neptune tried waving for their attention. "It's okay. I think we can manage." Nebula declined. I can feel the disappointment of the duo after hearing that. "We'll still be able to see each other at the dance, right?"

"Of course. We'll keep in touch. Maybe dance with all four of you even." I proposed without thinking. I really wanted to smack myself for saying that,  **[3]**  as I didn't want to make my love life more complicated by attempting to create a harem of girls.

They glanced at each other and blushed once again at the thought with Dew and Octavia biting their lips, but they were more than happy by it. "Great! We'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow then." Nebula said.

"Can't wait to see you girls too," I said.

"Then, in any case. We'll see you around!"

"Bye." I waved at the girls as they returned my farewell and walked from me. Listening to them as they leave, I could hear them utter.

"He's so cute!"

"Nice and understanding too!"

"And to think he can fight so bravely and win."

"I know, right?"

It's official. The person behind the phrase 'Nice guys finish last' is full of shit; either he didn't try hard enough or wasn't a nice guy to begin with. If that's true, I shouldn't have girls be attracted to me for being too nice when I thought that doing that would make me look awkward. I'm supposed to be here to look for dates for Sun and Neptune, not needlessly flirt with girls I'm supposed to pair them up with.

"Dude, how? Just how?!" Neptune pondered as he and Sun walked toward me. "Are you using some sort of chick magnet's body spray or something?"

"I can't say I recall using one, let alone owning one to begin with..." I said as I began sniffing and picked up a scent of it from Neptune. "But come to think of it, I can smell one coming from you."

"What? Please... I'm too cool for that kind of stuff." Neptune claimed.

"Not cool enough to attract girls." Sun quipped.

"Look who's talking." he retorted.

Sun turned back to me. "First Pyrrha Nikos, and then an entire team. Man, you have ways with girls, Jaune." Sun remarked. "Maybe you should get more than one partner?"

"Sun, don't give him ideas. The next thing we might know is that all single ladies are taken by Jaune and there would be nobody left for us to date with." Neptune said.

"Yeah, you're right," Sun muttered. "But I like the sound of that; Jaune Arc—the harem king! Someone would kill to get that title."

Oh, trust me. Polyamory would be the best thing to happen to me if I didn't know any better. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the company of being surrounded by multiple beautiful women, but having to take care of several girls would mean my time and wallet getting drained for trying to support all of them. I also have to struggle with treating all girls equally, which is a pain in the ass that it's not good for the health.

That's only assuming that such relationships work, I still have to go through some dramatic bullshit and keep them from each other's throats by somehow convincing them to share me. Otherwise, they would all start ganging up as they all dump me for playing with their feelings if they at least are merciful enough not to murder me or each other. So, no thanks. One partner would be enough, and I'll do my best to stay loyal to that person. **[4]**

I blame Dad for this. When he was younger, he said to have slept around with different women until he met Mom, where he stopped because he didn't want her to kill him. No wonder why she warned me about his romantic advice.

Eh, on the bright side, at least I know that I'm guaranteed to get laid soon.

I gave a faint chuckle. "Let's not forget why we're here. We still have to find you some partners."

"Yeah. Be sure to turn off your attractiveness this time, we didn't bring you here to see you steal girls from us." Neptune said.

"I don't intend to that," I told him… "I'll try but I don't guarantee it."

"Relax. With three of our charms combined. No one will be able to resist us!" Sun said, putting an arm over our shoulders.

At this point, you would want them to resist mine when they see me, I thought as I ponder how I am going to be done with this.

**=o=**

  1. _Despite struggling romantically in Beacon—Team SSSN was fairly popular among civilians in Mistral, especially females. They were even able to spawn a sizable fanbase centered on them._
  2. _Anyone who witnessed his body's build knows that this is not true, even if the depiction of his muscular stature is often exaggerated._
  3. _You're not the only one._
  4. _I sincerely hope that you're right about that._



* * *

After minutes of scouting, we were able to spot another single first-year. We were staring at Iris Clancy of Team VILE across the courtyard while she was playing chess with the Team CFVY member, Velvet Scarlatina, on a ledge.

Despite being in the same class, Iris and I didn't talk much.  **[1]** While she did recognize me by my title, she didn't appear to be much of a fan, thereby making her one of the most bearable classmates to deal with. I suspect that she is already with someone considering the lack of interest, only to recently find out that she was single and was open for being partnered with.

"Alright, we're at least familiar with each other—so let me take care of this one while you two stay put," I told the duo.

"Okay. Just remember to be careful not to have her fall for you." Sun replied.

I gave a silent nod since I really can't speak for that. I stood up and went to my classmate, puffing for a boost of confidence.

"Hey, Iris. Hey Velvet." I greeted the two girls as they paused their session to look at me. Iris gave a bright smile while Velvet was blushing uncontrollably at my presence.

"Oh, hello Jaune. Need something?" Iris inquired.

"As a matter of fact, I do," I stated. "You see I have some friends that need a date for tomorrow night, and I was wondering if you could help out for a bit?"

"What can I do then?"

"For starters, do you mind being the date of one of them? I don't mean for you actually date them or anything, you just need to accompany them for tomorrows dance."

She widened her eyes as she flushed and glanced around her surroundings "That's a bit sudden." she said before her face turned back to normal. "I'm sorry but I've decided I'm not going with anyone tomorrow. You better find someone else."

I groaned in disappointment but I kept my calm demeanor intact and respected her decision. "Okay then. Sorry to bother you. Both of you."

"No harm is done." Iris reassured, "I do hope your friends get what they needed."

"Much obliged." I thanked.

"Hey, Jaune?" Velvet's accented voice called, turning my attention towards her.

"Oh hey, Velvet. Looking lovely today." I said. The final compliment was supposed to be my attempt at being awkward, unfortunately, I forgot to make it sound like it and add a few stutters. Making me worry about the harem thing once again.

"Thank you," she said as her ears bent and looked away for a moment. "I just wanted to ask if you're doing alright. I heard you have gotten yourself involved with the White Fang. From what I've heard of, they aren't very nice people."

"That's an understatement. Attempting to rob a bank filled with innocents in it gives you an idea what kind of people they are." I stated. "And they're supposed to be fighters of equality or something."

"Yeah, I guess they lost their ideals." she said looking down. If there was anything the White Fan contributed to anything to their kind, it's nothing but full of trouble and putting more tension to the already strained relationships with humans. Team CRDL bullying someone as sweet and harmless like her can be thanked by the White Fang. "What were you doing in there anyway?"

"I was only passing through when it all happened. I had no choice but to fight." I said, partially telling her the truth. Why am I not telling her the bigger picture should be obvious enough.

"Well, that's an unfortunate coincidence," Iris commented, and she couldn't be any more right. "Luckily you got out alive, and the White Fang got what's coming to them."

"You can say that again," I stated. "Though, it was thanks to Pyrrha that their robbery foiled."

"Props to her." Velvet said. "But from what I've heard, you were doing fine even without Pyrrha's help. You could have still won regardless."

While not really implausible if I had a clearer mind then, they weren't aware of the psychopathic ice cream midget that would have brought my demise if Pyrrha didn't intervene. "Regardless, I'm glad to have to have her back. Even if we are known to be capable fighters, it's still our duty to watch each other's backs."

"I get where you're coming from. Coco pretty protective of me herself; she's pretty much why I was almost unharmed at my recent mission. It's not like she's overprotective or anything, she doesn't doubt my strength, she just doesn't like seeing me hurt. Aside from you teaching Cardin a lesson, she is also why he stopped picking on me. Say what you want about her, but she's like a big sister to me."

"I know how that feels." I snorted. "To be fair, Coco's nuts. I would do the same if she did threaten me."

"Did somebody say my name?" A voice asked. We all turned toward her and saw Coco folding her arms with Sun and Neptune behind her.

Welp, it appears that our operation has been compromised. Coco wasn't exactly what you'd call terrifying, at first glance she's just a normal fashion-loving girl with a bit of an attitude, but anyone familiar with her is aware that she could slaughter elite Grimm with only her handbag and that's without even transforming it to its minigun form. I've talked to her a few times back in some conferences between team leaders last semester. Surprisingly, she's a pretty amicable person to talk to. It's probably because I managed to get on her good side and I intend to stay there, wouldn't want my head to be crushed by a blunt purse.

"Oh, Coco! We were only discussing what we did this week." Velvet told her.

"Is it? Because from what I've heard Arc here is trying to help these two chumps find a partner for tomorrow's freshman dance." she sneered as she gestures towards the two.

"Hey, who are you calling a chump?" Sun retorted.

"Someone who couldn't ask out a girl despite his so-called 'charm'." she scoffed, making Sun growl as he just stands there, doing nothing about it.

"You know, I think we should move someplace else," Iris suggested to Velvet.

"Good idea." she said as she started to gather chess pieces and the board. "It was nice talking to you, Jaune. We'll keep in touch."

I gave her a nod as the two began trotting away with the chessboard. I went back to facing Team CFVY's fashionista of a leader. "Let me make this clear; no one is asking out Velvet. I was just trying to ask my classmate to take one of my friends to the dance."

"Of course nobody's asking her out. In fact, nobody asked her out last year." she asserted.

"No one did?" I raised my brow and continued to stare at her eyes behind those shades.

She shook her head. "She was too shy to ask someone out, and the boys either thought she was too good for them, or were racist pricks, or because they were scared because of me."

That definitely sounds like her, but if anything, she deserves to be treated better than that. "That a shame. She's a pretty nice girl."

"Indeed she is. And if somebody tried to take advantage of that, hoo-boy." she hissed. I nervously gulped at her sadistic streak, "But you have nothing to worry about. As much you look like you could offer a fun challenge, you're just too much a gentleman from what I've heard." she said before looking back at Sun and Neptune. "Though, I don't know if I could say the same for these two bozos."

"They're not bad people. I'm sure they'll get a dance, you just need to give them a little more time." I said, as much as annoying these two can be, they really seem to be interested in being genuinely helpful, even if they are not good at showing that.

"I know. With that macho attitude, they eventually would." she remarked. "Which is why I think you're wasting your time with them. So how about we talk at my office instead? I'm not taking any excuses."

She has an office? I thought. While I really wanted to ask that, I wasted no time and decided that I'll see it for myself. "Are you suggesting me to ditch them?

"Like I said. I don't like those two myself, but if they could pull off their good looks and make good use of it, they'll manage." she said. "I just want to have a word with you. One leader to another."

"Give me a sec," I said, pointing a finger and walked toward the duo. "Sorry, guys. It looks like you're on your own for now. Coco needs me for something apparently."

"Don't worry, we'll be fine. It was nice hanging out for you for a bit." Sun said.

"Look, I should have told you this earlier, but here it is. If you're going to ask someone out, just ask them nicely; no pickup lines, no suave moves, just be yourself."

"That's a little cliché, but we'll take your word for it," Neptune remarked.

I gotta thank Mom for the advice sometime. I wonder she gave that advice to dad when they were getting together.

"Just be a little careful. That chick sounds like she wants to break my bones." Sun warned.

I shrugged at the thought and went back to Coco. "Lead the way." I nodded at her.

She gave a satisfactory smirk as I began accompanying her toward wherever her so-called 'office'. As I disperse with the duo, I arrived with her at the sophomore's dorm building and we stopped at Team CFVY's door.

As it turned out, it just happened to be just her team's quarters. I really don't know why I even expected something else as it was improbable for a second-year student to have their own office.

The dorm was well-decorated, though. With each side representing the owner's personality pretty nicely. Coco's side look like it belonged to a fashion star. Velvet's wall was full of photos and memos. Yatsuhashi's is oriental-themed, fitting for someone who looks like or is a samurai, even having kanji writings sticking around. Meanwhile Fox' looks simplistic compared to his teammates, then again I don't know much about Fox and it might be conveying something I couldn't understand at the moment.

"Quite the office you have here, Coco. You and your teammates even sleep in it." I quipped as I looked around.

"Yeah, I know. It takes a bit of sweat to keep it tidy," she said, adjusting her shades, which she was still wearing even though she's indoors.

"You're still wearing those?" I pointed at her sunglasses. Coco's fashion sense, while agreeable for the most part, can raise a few brows, I would have asked her what was the purpose of those zippers on her knees if her wearing sunglasses indoors didn't bother me more.  **[2]**

"What? You have a problem?" she questioned.

As a matter of fact, I do. Don't your eyes ever struggle with dark tint inside a building or have you been wearing them long enough that your eyesight has adjusted to them to the point that there is barely a difference between wearing one or not. "Oh, nevermind."

She quickly shrugged off the question and grabbed the pot from a coffeemaker. "So... coffee?"

"I'm more of a tea type of guy, but thanks." I nodded. There was no reason for me not to simmer down with a nice, hot drink. It's not tanna, but it'll do.

Coffee with Team CFVY. Heh, go figure.

She poured coffee to a mug and handed it to me before grabbing a mug of her own. "Well, whaddaya freaking know, I've been away for a week and one of the first things you did was beat up a bunch of faunus extremists robbing a bank and become a bigger hero people said you were."

"Good to see you too. And trust me, you don't even know half of it." I leaned back my chair before taking a sip at the mug of coffee she gave me. "How was your trip, by the way?"

"It was boring." she yawned. "Just take your plain average Search & Destroy mission and stretch it long enough to last for five freaking days and you have the general idea of how we spent the last weekdays."  **[3]**

"That sounds annoyingly tedious," I remarked. However, in my opinion, that doesn't sound bad, given the lack of excitement she apparently had. If I were to start taking missions, these low-risk types that guarantee zero casualties are going to be my ideal choices. "Still sounds better than doing chores because you got in trouble."

"Wait, don't tell me they signed you up for community service because of that bank thing," Coco said as she firmly holds her mug so it doesn't spill from her being so baffled.

"No good deed ever goes unpunished," I remarked as I gave a chuckle. I'm actually glad my penalty is rather danger-free and I would take community service any day over life-threatening encounters with Grimm.

"So tell me; what are you planning on the dance now that you have Pyrrha Nikos herself as your partner?" she inquired.

I almost choked on my coffee when she asked me that. Thankfully, I managed not to spit it at her and I was able to get it through my throat before catching my breath. "How did you know that?"

"Gossip. Though, it wasn't much of news since everyone already thought you two were dating anyway. I'm more surprised to learn that you two still aren't a real couple."

"Well, I want to see where it goes first before going on a straight-up relationship," I told her. "I just want to give my partner the night of her life. It's everyone's objective for tomorrow anyway."

"That's a start. You better buckle up, because sooner or later you'll be taking your partnership to the next level."

I held my coffee down. "What are you getting into?"

"Face it, Arc. Everyone wants you two together. It's much harder to find someone here in Beacon who doesn't ship you and Pyrrha."

"Wait? Ship? As in relation-shipping? That kind of thing teenage girls like to do in their fanbases?" I pondered as I look at her in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"

"Believe it or not, it's apparently not limited to fictional couples. I know, it's weird as it sounds. Heck, I heard there are even some weirdos out there who pair me up with Velvet." she said as she puts her mug on a table.

"You and Velvet, huh?" I pondered as I try not to show my amusement at the thought of her making out with Velvet before snapping out of it before she notices. "Why is that? I mean, not saying there's anything wrong with you two getting together, hypothetically speaking. My eldest sister is married to a girl."

"I don't know, because it's cute to them, I guess? That sounds much more reasonable than because I was the only person they saw talking to her. I do really care about Velvet because that is what a partner is supposed to do, but I NEVER SAW HER LIKE THAT." she suddenly snapped, making me flinch back that my coffee almost spilled. Coco calmed down and took a deep breath. "Seriously, do people these days think that normal interaction equals romance?"

Come to think of it. I really didn't show much affection to Pyrrha at public, yet Coco claimed that we were still a popular pairing. I suppose it was still obvious or because people like pairing them with their partners by default, which would be a rather lazy way of making couples if you ask me.  **[4]**

"Next time I hear someone doing that. I swear I'm shoving a carrot up on their ass." she hissed. I really wish she didn't mention that because that was something I did not want to visualize in my mind. "Back on topic, since your relationship with P-Money is inevitable, you are going to need some insights to romance."

"I don't think that's necessary, Coco. My family already gave me enough advice and I've already dated before."

"Too bad. I'm still going to teach you anyway." she then stirred to her shelf and grabbed a book with a red snowflake on the cover.

"The Crimson Snow Chronicles?" I said, uttering the title of the said book she was holding. By the looks of it, it's another garbage romance novel, and boy was I right.

"Yeah, it's a pretty popular book. Maybe too popular that it's overshadowing all the other novels in the genre." Coco explained. "It's about a princess caught in a love triangle between a gardener and a knight."

"You lost me at love triangle," I said. Granted, I'm never into these types of stories and I probably won't bother reading a single page of it, but I really loathe love triangles. It annoys me on how overused it is and how usually shallow it is executed. Relationships can be complicated in different ways and yet for some reason, they always pick this dumb cliché and uses it with as little depth as possible.

"Oh come on. You haven't even read it yet. Give it a chance, you might learn a thing or two about courting a lady."

"No thanks, I think I'll be fine." Even if I did bother with it, I really doubt this is going to teach me anything. Knowledge from Romance novels is just as reliable as knowledge from movies.

Coco sighed for a moment. "Suite yourself. But the first two is really good. The third one sucked; it was less of a story and more of a mouthpiece for the author's political views."

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. "Oh wow."

"And don't get me started on its fanbase. Because of the theme of the stories, arguments tend to be heated regarding who the princess should end up with."

Fighting over fictional couples? That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Really, I'm trying my hardest not to burst out laughing because of how absurd that sounds. Seeing how shipping also extends to real life for whatever farcical reason, I hope no one takes any of that too seriously, it would be pretty sad if you think about it.

"Could be worst, at least it's not something like you know 'The Ninjas of Love.'" Coco shrugged. Ugh, she really had to mention that abomination of a book. I never read something so atrocious I almost died laughing my guts out on how bad it is while questioning myself what the hell on I'm doing with my life.

"If you're in the mood, maybe you should give it a chance. I won't force you to like it."

I puffed as I sipped down half of my mug and began pondering why am I even doing here and realize that this conversation was getting too off-topic. "It's cool to know about this book and all, but this is getting us nowhere. Are we still even talking about the dance?"

"Yeah, sorry. Got a little overboard with this," she said before clearing her throat. "I take it you have something to wear for tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, I have," I answered. "It's a tux one of my sisters made. It's not really the fanciest suit but its good enough for me."

"Your suit isn't too bright or flashy by any chance, is it?" she inquired.

"What? No, it's a black tux. I know my sisters like to embarrass me, but they wouldn't go that far." I said, ignoring that they also sent a dress for me to wear.

"Oh good. You wouldn't want to make an ass of yourself when you're trying to make the best impression to Mistral's most badass darlings" she remarked. "Outside of weddings, those things pretty much lost their magic these days."

"You're really into fashion," I remarked. "There's no doubt that you'll get along with one my sisters. She's a tailor herself, and she owns a boutique in Acadia **[5]**."

"Never heard of her," Coco said. "She sounds cool, though. I should meet her someday."

I smiled before inquiring for more advice. "Anything else I should know?"

"You happen to have a lot of admirers, do you?" Coco raised her brow, making them visible above her sunglasses.

I thought about the fangirls that have been gushing about me since El Segadore's attempted robbery which elevated since my recent act of unintentional vigilantism. "Maybe~" I answered hesitantly.

Coco began snickering. "You're such a charmer. Don't worry, you could satisfy these girls while keeping Pyrrha as your top priority. You could dance with as many people as you want."

I took a deep breath. The most girls I have danced during social events are usually three or less, depending on how many girls my sister tried pairing me at those times, here I might probably end up dancing several girls since I ended up making too many friendships with the opposite sex, as well as the fangirls I have to satisfy while not being too affectionate as I still don't want a harem. "Good to know."

"Aside from that, I don't have anything to say aside from what you may have already known," Coco admitted, standing up and grabbing to finish her mug of coffee while I and finished with mine. At least my visit here wasn't entirely pointless. "This is a pretty nice talk. Just remember to take good care of Pyrrha. I heard that girls like her are pretty hungry for genuine love. I trust that you'll satisfy her with that then?"

"You have nothing to worry about. I'd be a bad partner if I didn't treat her well." I reassured, putting the cup at my table and stood up as well.

"Good luck out there tiger," Coco said as I started heading to the exit before she called me again. "Oh, and by the way. Your fly was down this whole time."

I glared at her before checking it out—turned out she was right. I groaned, zipping it up and went straight for the exit.

Trying to have a normal relationship in Beacon is tougher than I thought.

**=o=**

  1. _Jaune rarely converses with other Beacon freshmen aside from his team and Team RWBY, so this isn't considered a surprise._
  2. _She even wears them during nighttime. Make that as you will._
  3. _Yatsuhashi Daichi wrote an After-Action Report describing the said mission, although, like what Coco mentioned, it's hardly an intriguing read due to the dullness of the mission by Huntsman standards._
  4. _Sounds like that they lack tasteful choices in pairings then._
  5. _A city located near Pucelle where the Arc family regularly visits._



* * *

Stepping out from the hallway of the second-year's dorms, the first thing I saw was Sun and Neptune standing near the entrance and that it was getting dark.

"So, what did you talk about?" Sun asked.

"Just some stuff for tomorrow. Nothing much really." I answered. "So, you two finally got someone?"

Sun just looked down and sighed while Neptune just stood there with a frown. "I guess it didn't go well then. Sorry, guys." I said. This is a bit of a surprise, these two are more good-looking than I do that they should have a date by now.

"It's okay. I think we'll be fine going to the dance on our own, who needs chicks anyway?" Sun said, brightening up for a bit before stretching an arm to Neptune's shoulder. "Besides, we still have each other."

"Yeah…" Neptune muttered, forcing a smile. "Hey, Jaune… I just wanted to say that I've decided that…" he paused, hesitating his statement.

"That you what?"

"Nothing. I just decided who I'm going to the dance with."

"Good to know. Have you asked her out yet?" I responded, feeling somewhat glad for him.

"Nah… actually she asked me out." he said, scratching his back as he blushed, with Sun giving a faint chuckle.

"Really? That's good to hear. At least this wasn't a colossal failure." I said. Neptune is lucky to have Weiss drooling at him for whatever reason. **[1]** Otherwise, he had to go through the embarrassment of as a heartthrob who fails to take a girl to a dance.

"Yeah…" Neptune looked at his partner for a bit, exchanging nervous looks before turning back to me. "Thanks for your help. Things may not have gone to plan, but it was nice hanging out with you."

"No problem." I nodded before turning to Sun. "And sorry again that we couldn't get you a partner, Sun."

"Like I said, it's all cool," Sun reassured. "I'd like to think of this as a lesson of humility for both of us. We were too used to our popularity back home, after all."

"Uh-huh," I uttered. "Just remember my advice. Hopefully, it might net you, someone, someday."

"Trust me—after today, I don't think I'll be forgetting that anytime soon." he stated. "Thanks again for your help."

"Anytime." We mutually smiled at each other before finally going at our separate ways.

I was heading to the freshman's dorm when I stopped to look at the Beacon's statue once more. The very same one where Blake revealed her secret. A statue symbolizing the bravery of Huntsmen and Huntresses—and how they are protectors of the world. The plaque below it reads Beacon's slogan: 'Victoria Per Animae Simplex'  **[2]**

It only made me question my presence here again. It's baffling to know how far I went and yet still have a long way to go, all because I'm too afraid to disappoint anyone.

I continued to stand and stare at the statue for a couple more minutes, sighing to myself as I keep asking myself if this is all worth it. It wasn't until I heard a familiar faunus' voice that I stopped staring and looked around before spotting Blake walking toward me.

"Jaune?"

"Oh hey, Blake." I greeted as I turned to face her. "Are you doing alright?"

"I wish I could say that." she admitted as she looked down and faced me. "Jaune... you're not mad at me are you?"

While I did find her obsession with the White Fang to be annoying that I gave up trying to convince her, I just couldn't bring myself to be angry with her. "No. Not at all." I shook my head. "Upset? Yeah. Mad. Not really."

She sighed in relief. "Regardless, I just wanted to say I'm really sorry for the way I behaved lately. I know I've been very stubborn and have been pushing myself a lot I have been so busy trying to chase down the White Fang that I've forgotten about who am I'm doing it for."

I stared at her, slowly walking closer as I listen to her apology. "Blake..."

"I shouldn't have yelled at you yesterday. You were only trying to help."

"I forgive you," I told her as I walked up to her and put my hand on her shoulder. "Just try not to push yourself too hard. We were worried that you'd break because of your restless mission against the White Fang. Take it easy. We'll even help you out once the time is right."

She sniffed and wiped a tear as she looked at me back with a smile. "I know... which is why I changed my mind and decided to come to the dance tomorrow."

That statement shocked me. I was at disbelief at first, seeing how to staunch refusal to come has been bothering us lately before beaming that she's finally convinced to come. "That's great! I'm happy that you're finally settling down. I'm really proud of you, Blake."

"Yeah, I know. I realized that I shouldn't be taking you guys for granted. You guys have been helping me even if you didn't have to. You have been the friends I never knew I wanted and I'm grateful for that."

"You're quite welcome. Just so you know, we're always here for you." I affirmed before letting her go.

She looked away as she gave blush on this tender moment before asking me a question. "So, you're still coming tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, of course, I am. Why do you ask?"

"Do you already have a date?" she asked as she held her forearm.

"Actually, I do. I'll be taking Pyrrha out."

"Oh," she sighed, looking noticeably disappointed. "I'm... happy for you then." she poked her head down.

"Thanks..." I nervously said but I could barely hide my empathy for her knowing that she was upset that she lost her chance to come with me. This was the only idea I had to cheer her up. "By the way, Sun is looking for a partner himself, if you ever need a date, you could go ask him."

She poked her head up and slightly cheered up. "Well, I don't mind taking Sun out." she remarked. "Thanks for the tip. I really appreciate it."

"Just remember that I'll also be seeing you," I said, giving a reassuring smile. "I won't be a stranger."

"I will." she replied, beaming. "Thanks again, Jaune."

"You're welcome."

She turned back and walked away before I knew it she was already gone. Knowing Blake, it wasn't a surprise. I looked back at the statue, but instead of feeling guilt I felt hope.

Yang actually did it. Whatever she did to finally get her to change her mind about the dance, I'll give her credit for that. Things just got a little better.

**=o=**

  1. _This is a false assumption. I do not exactly drool._
  2. _'Victory is in a simple soul.' In the Old Imperial Language._



* * *

I woke so late that the dorm was empty—even Ren, who was usually the last person to rise on weekends was nowhere to be found. Shaking my head and taking a shower, I went to the cafeteria to give myself a decent breakfast. I still have work in a few hours. Although the decorations at the ballroom were set for the most part, we still need to finalize its preparations.

Ordering for some mac n' cheese. I went to the tables and saw Sun waving at me, brightly smiling with a plate of bananas on his table. I moved toward him and sat at his front.

"Dude, have you heard? Blake's finally coming to the dance!" Sun enthusiastically said.

"Yeah, I know, she told me yesterday. Did she asked you out?"

"She did." he answered as he munches another banana before swallowing it. "Well, she said that she has her first dance saved for Yang. But man, I never expected she'd actually change her mind and even ask me out. What happened?"

"I don't know. Turned out, Yang was crazier than I expected." I said as began eating a few spoons of my macaroni. "Whatever she did to convince her, she really earned that dance."

"Yeah, you're right. It's nice to have things turning to our favor for a change, we really needed that."

"Amen to that," I said. "By the way, are you really coming to the dance with those?" I said gesturing to his usual outfit.

"Nah. I figured that I needed to wear something that's not going to get me kicked out. While it's not really fancy, I'll fit in just fine while still keeping my style."

"Good to hear." I nodded before asking further inquiring. "So, how's Neptune?"

"He's doing fine…" Sun said hesitantly. I was puzzled at his disinclination that I felt like there is something he isn't telling.

"Sounds like there's something bothering you." I pointed out. "Are you two okay?"

"We're good. I'm just happy that he's following his heart, that's all."

"That's it?" I asked skeptically. "For a second, you were acting a little weird."

"I-It's nothing. We still just couldn't believe we're actually getting dates." he clarified before making a chuckle.

"Yeah, no one's coming alone tonight," I said. Well, not entirely true since Ruby doesn't appear to have a date, while Yang at least gets to have a dance with her partner.

He silently nodded as we went back into eating at our respective meals. Once we were done, Sun told me he'll see me later at the dance and went his separate way. I went to the ballroom to finish any remaining work before it could be used for the dance.

Our shift was quick, mostly because most of the arrangement was already taken care of yesterday. We just picked up where we left off.

"It looks like we're all set!" Yang chirped. The ballroom was transformed to be suited for a school prom. It would surely look dandy once night comes.

"Not quite yet," Weiss uttered, even though everything already looks great after hours of planning.

"What do you mean 'not quite yet'?!" Yang glared at her. "Don't tell me it still not fancy enough for you!"

"Just hold on for a second, Xiao Long." she went to a table and slightly adjusted the flower vase above it. "There. Now, you can really say we're all set."

Yang groaned as she rolls her eyes. "Remind me never to decorate with you again, Princess Snowflake."

"Trust me. I find that to be very beneficial for both of us." Weiss replied.

"I take it that everything's in order?" Miss Goodwitch asked, approaching us from the room's entrance.

"Yes, ma'am. Everything's is in place." Weiss said as she gestures around the room. "We kept everything tidy and tested all the equipment. The ballroom is now ready to be used."

"Very good." Miss Goodwitch gave an approving nod as she started tapping on her tablet. "I knew I could depend on you into organizing this room. Consider yourselves relieved on your duty. You're going to need your remaining energy once the dance begins."

"Understood, ma'am. Thank you." Weiss bowed.

We promptly exited the ballroom. As we were heading back to our dorms, I approached Yang to acknowledge her successful attempt into coaxing Blake in going to the dance. "Hey, Yang. Good job on getting Blake to finally come. Thought that she's going to stay like that."

"I have my moments, Lady Killer." Yang boasted. "When I say I get things done, I get things done."

"I could definitely see that."

She looked back at her tracks before tapping her sister's shoulder "Hey, Rubes. Since you don't have a date. Maybe you could ask Jaune for a dance."

"Yang!" Ruby yelled as she gives off a faint blush. She was noticeably trying to hold back as I do pretty much the same.

"C'mon, sis! I know you like him. It's not every day you get the chance of having a bold, dashing knight to a dance." Yang teased as I continue to walk and kept my face straight, trying my best not be embarrassed by this.

"Yeah, I know he's cool, but it's nothing like that," Ruby replied. Yep, I'm definitely not alone in the Tormented Younger Sibling Department.

"Well, if you don't want him, then maybe I could have him myself," Yang suggested before calling me. "Hey Jaune, you don't mind giving me a dance, right?"

"Yang~!"

"Oh, you're jealous! You definitely want him."

"Knock it off, you two," Weiss said. By the look of her face and the tone of her voice, there is something that is infuriating her. I know Weiss can be grumpy, but there's something.

"Are you okay?" I asked concerned about her mysteriously disheartened behavior.

She puffed. "I'm fine," she said. She's acting like Sun and Neptune recently. But that's probably just me. Of course, she's fine, she's dating someone on the same league as her and just wants a great impression. Why am I even worried about her?

We went to our respective dorms and spent the afternoon doing our own thing while preparing for the dance.

* * *

Glancing at the dorm room's clock and seeing that it's 8:54 P.M. I took one last look at the mirror displaying my own figure that was now clad in formal attire. My hair was combed to be less messy than usual and I donned a black tuxedo with red accents and a bow-tie in a matching color with a gray vest underneath it.

Personally, I prefer ties instead of bows. I just find them to a bit more stylish while still being simple and relatively more comfortable to wear. But overall, I look fine. I got to be grateful to Viola of providing me decent clothes over the years.

Putting aside an empty cup from where I consumed tanna from before dressing up since I didn't want any of it spilling on my tux, I decided that I'm all groomed up and ready to go.

The door opened as Ren walks in, donning a tux similarly designed to mine, but with purple accents and a purple bow. "So, you're ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied. He gave a nod as I accompany him to where we would take our date out.

Earlier, Pyrrha and Nora told us to meet at a specific location marked at exactly 9:00 P.M. We didn't have any reason to object, so we had no choice but to comply. The marker eventually led us to the academy's statue monument, where it was empty save for the two of us.

Checking my scroll's clock, it was 8:58 P.M. Meaning we were just in time and just have to wait for a couple of minutes. We both just stood there behind the statue in awkward silence, barely minding each other and not making a sound aside from a single whistle I made to root out uneasiness between us as we waited for our partners.

Yeah, this is pretty much what hanging out with Ren feels like. He definitely doesn't talk unless spoken to or when he needs to. I don't mind that, though, as I appreciate his straightforwardness and professionalism. He does say and do some very weird stuff from time to time, for example, he talks about the 'machine spirit' or something when he sees someone use any type of technology.  **[1]**  This is probably because he was with Nora for who knows how long.

As the clock finally hits nine, sounds of footsteps promptly emitted behind us before Pyrrha's voice spoke up.

"Are you boys ready?"

Before any of us answered, we turned around and was stunned to see our partners clad in their formal wear, with our eyes widening and our jaws dropping, giving Ren an expression I thought I would never see him sport.

Pyrrha was wearing a long red dress reaching from her collar to her lower leg, still wearing the crown she regularly wears. Nora's pink dress, while being shorter than Pyrrha's, it was much more modest, and it suited her bright personality.

"So, Jaune. How do I look?" Pyrrha asked.

"I...uhh I...uhh I...uhh." I was too befuddled to make a proper answer, especially compared to Ren who immediately snapped out of it, probably because he was used to Nora and because he saw worse even if her closet turned out to be full of surprisingly harmless-looking clothes, at least that's what I remembered.

Pyrrha chuckled. "I'll take that as a compliment then." she smiled.

I shook my head out of my stupefied state. I cleared my throat and asserted. "A-Alright, everyone. Now that we're here—let's have a night we won't forget, shall we?"

They all nodded before Pyrrha and Nora stepped in and offered their respective partners hands. While I may have held hands with many different girls in my life, I was still astounded when I took Pyrrha's hand. It was soft and gentle that it felt natural and it never felt forced when she held me back. I could only smile at her as I accompanied her to the ballroom with our teammates at our side.

When we arrived, the first thing we saw was Yang standing on a podium greeting guests as she spots us.

"Well, if it isn't Hero-boy and Wonder-girl!" Yang said, pointing at us with some finger guns. "Good to finally have you guys here."

"Nice to see you, too. You look great by the way." I responded, complimenting her white dress, which seems to have flattered her. "Place looks fantastic. Looks like our work did pay off." I looked at the ballroom and saw the results of our arrangement; it perfectly captured the young romantic atmosphere we were aiming for. The dance floor was already filled with pairs dancing to the ballad of the tune playing on the room. The music was being administered by two DJs wearing robotic helmets while still donning their tux.

"You betcha!" she pumped. "Now, what are you waiting for? Go on and have fun!"

We beamed at her for once more time as we moved past her and into the dance floor. I looked back at Pyrrha while standing in the middle of the floor, ignoring the glances directed at us as some of the recognizable faces of the first years.

"So…" Pyrrha uttered, as she slightly bobbed her head down and sported a slight blush.

I stared at her and noticed her nervousness, which puzzled me considering how normal it is for her to be at the center of attention. I decided to ask her to start dancing as I thought it would ease her mind for a bit. "Should we begin?" I held her hand once again.

"Of course." she promptly nodded and returned my offer and put her other hand on my shoulder as we began to slowly sway to the rhythm of the music.

Turning to my two other teammates, they were in the act as well. They looked back with bright smiles on their faces as Ren nods at me. I beamed at them before we went back enjoying our respective partners.

I kept eye-contact with Pyrrha's emerald eyes, just enjoying the music and not really caring around the world or anyone else around me (maybe except when I had to watch for other couples so I could not hit them in this packed ballroom.) Pyrrha was enjoying herself. Her dancing was adequate, not that it really mattered to me. The thing that was bothering me is that she would glance at her side from time to time and look somewhat anxious before hastily looking back at me.

"You look nervous. Have you ever danced before?" I asked her gently.

"Actually I did," she reassured, not really surprising given her popularity. "It just feels a bit strange that I actually doing it with someone I actually know. Most boys I danced with were strangers that some of my friends paired me up with."

"I certainly know how that feels." I sympathized, musing at the social events my family dragged me to. "Not a lot of boyfriends back home, do you?" I asked before realizing my poor choice of words. "I-I mean that you don't really have a lot of boys that are your friends, that's what I actually meant." I corrected myself as I chuckled nervously.

She giggled. "Next to none," she answered, glancing down. "You were actually one of my first."

"I am?" I pondered, raising one of my brows.

"Yes, you are. And a good one at that." she stated, brightly smiling at me.

I returned the smile, beneath it lies a semblance of shame when I remembered that I was still using her as a meat shield and intends to use her next mission, along with everyone my team. I kept my positive manner as I didn't want her or anyone to notice my dilemma and just want to enjoy that moment, without anything including my own self ruining it.

As I continued to dance with Pyrrha, I look around the other partners at the ballroom as they have a good time. One that caught my attention was Sun and Blake happily dancing with each other. Seeing them both content was uplifting since they were rather dispirited prior to this. Blake spotted me and flashed a smile. I returned the smile to her and glanced at the side to see her teammates standing by, all with satisfied looks on their faces.

Given what we have to go through this week, it's nice for good things to happen to us for once.

Minutes went by of being on Pyrrha's comforting company, we eventually stopped. Giving her another warm stare, I escorted her to our table, I did not let her go until she was seated comfortably on her chair.

"There's plenty more where that came from," I said as I simpered at her.

"Can't wait to see what you have to offer, then." she cooed.

I turned back and looked around the ballroom. "I'm just gonna roam around and explore. Need a drink?"

"I think I'll be fine, but thank you."

"Okay then. I'll be back before you know it." I gave her one last nod before walking away.

I headed to the buffet to get some free food, which I found to be the best part of these types of gatherings. Social events can be very boring, but on the bright side, you get to eat something nice without wasting a single dime whether it's a fine cuisine or a delicious dessert.

I stopped when I saw that I was being approached by the power that is himself. He was still wearing the same apparel as he was always been wearing, which I couldn't blame him enough since that's formal enough for himself. What irks me the most is that he still has his mug with him. I'm not sure if that's the same mug or if he had several mugs of similar design.

"Enjoying the night so far, Mr. Arc?"

I'm enjoying it as much as you enjoy seeing me suffer if that what's your asking. But as much as I want to ask him that, I'm afraid that I have to stay on his good side, otherwise, I'd be making him happy to throw me to even worse crap as retribution. "I can't really say that I don't," I answered as politely as I could.

"Very well. You should continue enjoy it while the night is still young. Like one's youth, it should not be taken for granted. Events such as these give you a chance to lift your spirits up before an upcoming storm." the Great & Powerful Ozpin stated.

Considering it was scheduled a day before we have our first mission, it won't be a surprise if it this was our last chance to celebrate before our possible demise. "Well, If anything I'm going to make that this won't be my last."

"Knowing you, this certainly won't be." Ozpin smiled at me before turning his head back to the dance floor. "If you think about it, fighting and dancing aren't so different. They are both considered art that requires physical prowess that the two is occasionally combined.  **[2]**  One example of their similarities would be two partners interlocking, although one wrong move on the ballroom merely leads to a swollen foot. You happen to be proficient at both fields, have you not noticed?"

"My family thought me everything I need in life, and I'm grateful for that."

"Your family does deeply care about you; I hope you act the same to those around you. It's not every day that friends are able to come together like this. Time has a way of testing our bonds, but its nights like these that can help keep them stronger than ever. Nights like these are ones we'll never forget."

Watching the ballroom again I could see Ren and Nora dance for a bit before being tangled together in an embrace, that image warmed my heart. While I still don't like Ozpin, I can definitely see what he's coming from.

"I shall be off now. Please have a nice evening. I have plans for you tomorrow." he said before walking away.

His last sentence froze me. What did he mean by that? When I finally stopped spacing out, he was already gone.

Scanning around the ballroom, I spotted some of my teachers; Professor Port was telling one of his tales to Doctor Oobleck. That was then I found where Ozpin went. He was beside Miss Goodwitch who I saw was invited by someone who looked like was the Atlesian guy on the hologram that day. Same person perhaps?

Before I tempted myself to approach Ozpin and question what does he plan to do with me, I saw Ruby alone on the punch table, looking downcast. Whether she was feeling alone or was still haunted by that night, I had a friend in need.

Grabbing a marshmallow and dipping it to the chocolate fountain before eating it whole. I went toward her and asked what was disturbing her.

"Hey," I said, prompting her to look up and face me across the table. "You alright?"

"I'm fine. I'm just not really feeling this up." her expression was a little better than I thought, but she was undoubtedly perturbed by something. She was wearing a dark red dress that still fits her perky goth persona but she doesn't seem to be comfortable in it.

"Not really your kind of party, is it?"

"I guess you could say that." she nodded. "Don't get me wrong. I like parties as much as the next guy, but I'm not really into fancy parties where you dance with someone and stuff like that."

"You'll learn to appreciate it. I didn't like these types of parties either, I thought it was just so people could play matchmaker with you. But it also helps because you get to learn with others more." I told to her as I look at Sun and Blake who appeared to be done dancing and were now making their way back to their seat. "Blake look like she's having fun," I added, before taking a sip.

"I'm really happy for her." Ruby beamed before frowning once again. "It's just too bad that I can't say the same for Weiss."

I almost spit out my punch at that revelation, had not I was able to swallow it and make me choke for a bit. "What do you mean?"

"Weiss came alone. She said that she had too much to focus on to worry about boys." she clarified.

Looking at my side and seeing Weiss all alone, trying to make a wilting white rose stand in vain before looking at Neptune who was chatting up with Sun and Blake. I could see why those two were anxious before this dance started. "Oh, yeah. I see that..."

"It sucks. I know Weiss can be a bit unbearable sometimes, but she's not really a bad person. Once you get to know her, she's actually an okay friend; shopping with her yesterday was pretty fun. It's pretty upsetting to see her alone." Ruby said.

I feel pity for her. While I dislike her attitude and we weren't really on the best of terms recently, Weiss can be a decent person to be around with. I could still remember having a pleasant conversation with her after our first day of class; I believed she deserved better.

Neptune apparently was done conversing with Sun and Blake. Finishing my punch, I decided to confront him about this. "I gotta go. Try to have fun for a bit. We might not even have another party like this."

"Trust me, I'll try." Ruby made an assuring nod.

I inconspicuously trailed Neptune as he walks right up to the stairs, blending with the crowd full of well-dressed students. I did receive glances from some students but they were oblivious with my intents that they immediately ignored me. Taking the stairs then taking a short walk through the halls of the second floor. I followed Neptune to the balcony, where he was leaning at the banister and staring up at the night sky.

He heard my footsteps entering the balcony and turned around. "Oh hey, Jaune." I just noticed he still has his goggles on his forehead while wearing that tux. Typical huntsman fashion sense. "So~ what's up?"

"I'm doing fine. How about you?" I replied calmly while feeling somewhat cold to him.

"Just getting some fresh air."

There was a pause for a few seconds. I kept staring at him while his sight wanders. "So, how's your partner?"

"Yeah~ about that..." Neptune nervously uttered. "Listen... I kinda... screwed up."

"I know. You came to the dance alone, didn't you?" I queried.

He shamefully nodded. "Yeah, b-but I wasn't really lying when I said that someone asked me out, I just ended up rejecting her."

"Weiss..." I looked away for a second, musing about how she displayed affection to him. While it indeed baffles that she was enthused with him out of nowhere since they first met. She didn't really deserve to be rejected like that.

"She told you, didn't she?" he presumed.

"Not really, I just found out." I corrected, which seems to have slightly reassured him. "Why did you turn her down like that? You had trouble getting a date and you ruined your only chance!"

"Look, man, I wanted to take her out. I really do!" he claimed as he began to look down. "I just realize that it won't work out..."

"Won't work out? What do you mean?"

"It's kinda silly. Really." he gave a faint chuckle before making eye contact once more. "Would you promise not to tell anyone?"

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms as I hesitantly took his word. "I cross my heart and hope to die. Just tell me what's wrong."

He sighed and admitted. "I can't dance."

My eyes widened as I froze in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

"I can't dance, man—really!" he spurted. "Had I thought of that sooner, I wouldn't have bothered trying to pick someone up for this night. I may be skilled in some fields but dancing isn't one of them."

"But... didn't you said that you guys used to make music?"

"We did, I just didn't do any dancing. I only composed the music and did some of the singing. Well, my singing was auto-tuned—but you get the point.  **[3]** "

I glanced at my side and sighed. "That explains it then." Although laughably pitiful, I emphasize with him. It's perfectly understandable that you don't want to make a fool of yourself of trying something you know you can't do, but I wish he would have told me that sooner instead of making me think that he got a date.

"Look, dude. I know I just made her lonely down there and it's my fault. Take her, I think you deserve her a lot more than I do; you're everything that I'm not. Just please don't tell anyone."

He's partially right, he's not a lying, cheating lowlife like me. I don't think I deserve her either, but if Weiss was to cheer up, then she deserves to be with someone she actually likes.

"Do you really like Weiss?" I asked him

"Yeah, I mean I really don't know her too well yet, but she seems pretty cool," he answered. "I know shouldn't have rejected her like that, but as I said, she's better off with you."

I was not letting two of my friends be lonely tonight. "Thanks, but... I think you should be one taking her. I mean, she approached you. And don't worry about dancing, I think you'll be fine."

"Yeah, but what am I going to tell her, man? I don't think I could show my face to her ever again after I blew my chance with her."

"Just remember what I told you yesterday." I reminded.

"Oh yeah, what was it again?!" he put his finger on his chin. "'No pickup lines. No suave moves. Just be yourself.' Was it?"

I firmly nodded, which seemed to have brightened him up.

"You sure about this?"

"I trusted my Mom when she told me that. I haven't found her to be wrong on something so far."

"You're such a momma's boy, aren't you?" he commented. "Not that there's anything wrong with that, I love my mom too." he took a deep breath. "Well, if that's what got chicks into you, I'll take your word for it. Just remember not to tell anyone that I can't dance."

"Your secret is safe with me." I reaffirmed. "Go talk to her. I guarantee it'll make her night."

"Thanks, Jaune. You're too good for this world, I really mean it." he went close to me and offered me his fist.

"Don't mention it." I bumped his fist with mine to return the gesture.

He then walked past me and exited the balcony with his newfound confidence. I just stood there alone, feeling the breeze of the ballroom's exterior. While I was happy that I did help out some of my friends, it only made me wonder if I had gotten too close with my colleagues. I knew that I had to make bonds with them so that they could aid me through this school years, but I know that eventually, I had to abandon these people one way or the other. I pray that it wouldn't have to come to that.

I was too caught up at my own cogitations that I did not hear the footsteps coming from the heels of a certain redhead.

"Jaune?"

"Oh, Pyrrha." I turned my head out of surprise. "So, how's the party?"

"So far it's been great; Ren and Nora are having so much fun," she said and starts looking at me worryingly. "Are you okay? Is there something bothering you?" she asked as she steps in a little closer.

I held my blush. "N-N-No! I-I'm doing fine. You know these parties, they can get rowdy that you need some alone time." I explained.

"Uh-huh." she slowly nodded with hesitation. "Well, you don't mind if I stay here with you for a minute?"

"No. Not at all. Why would I ever shun away the presence of my partner?"

"Well then." she moved closer until she was next beside me on the balcony.

Once again we were gazing at the nightly scenery of Beacon together. The scenery was vast enough that you could see the Beacon tower in all its glory there. Looking away from the view and at Pyrrha, her beautiful face was appreciating Beacon's landscape peacefully.

Turning my head down, I saw that her hand was resting on the stone banister beside mine. I was tempted to hold it, hesitantly guiding my hand to hers. I know I already held her hand at the dance, but this was different—we were alone with each other, and holding hands is a sign of affection that indicates something beyond friendships.

"Jaune..."

I immediately shook my hand away from hers when I was hovering my palm to the back of her hand. "Yeah, Pyrrha?"

She turned her head to me. "I just wanted to say that I'm very grateful to be your partner and teammate."

"You're quite welcome..."

"You've been a great friend and leader; for these past months, I cannot be more grateful for that. You've given me something I thought I would never have."

"Never have what?"

She looked back to the balcony. "You see, I've been blessed with incredible talents and opportunities. I'm constantly surrounded by love and praise, but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long, you become separated from the people that put you there in the first place."

That's what I'm also worried about. Aside from my guilt of upholding an image that I don't deserve, I also have to preserve my humanity before I become too much of an idol. It's cool being known more than just plain old Jaune Arc, but at the end of the day—that's just who I am. It's no wonder I get along with Pyrrha, she seems to be bearing the same problems that I'm trying to face or am preparing to face.

She faced me again. "Everyone assumes I'm too good for them. That I'm on a level they simply can't attain. It's become impossible to form any sort of meaningful relationship with people." she began smiling. "That's what I like about you. When we met, you didn't even know my name. You treated me just like anyone else. And thanks to you—I've made friendships that will last a lifetime; I cannot be more thankful than that."

I smiled knowing how she is appreciative to me. But at the same time, I couldn't help but feel stricken at my own conscience that I managed to successfully gain her respect to further my selfish intentions. Our friendship may be genuine, but unfortunately—I still have my own plans.

There was a short pause afterward. Pyrrha then caught her breath. "I'm rambling, am I?"

"No worries. I'm grateful to have you too as well. We'll get through this together."

She looked at me brightly and went to stay at my side for a few more minutes until she decided to leave. "I'm going back downstairs. I'll see you there."

I watched her leave the balcony before I found myself to be alone once again, only this time—I felt peace within myself after spending some time with her; feelings of self-conflict suddenly vanished.

Maybe I shouldn't think about myself too hard for now.

**=o=**

  1. _At some point before attending Beacon, Ren and Nora was once part of a machine cult that creates technology while worshipping them and a so-called 'Machine God', which is mostly referred to them as 'The Omnissiah'. Although they are no longer subscribed to the said cult, they seem to have kept some of the beliefs of that dogma._
  2. _This is true. Due to the vast similarities between dancing and fighting, there are several martial arts and fighting styles that originated from dance or vice-versa. My fighting style, for example, mixes fencing with figure-skating._
  3. _This had more or less explained why Neptune's 'singing' sounded odd when I listened to them the first few times._



* * *

I went downstairs, once again hearing the indistinct murmurs of the partygoers enjoying the night. Watching the dance floor among the crowd, I saw Neptune dancing slowly with Weiss. Sure he was noticeably nervous, as he was watching his steps to make sure they don't land on her feet but Weiss looked really happy that Neptune finally decided to dance with her, and I couldn't help but smile.

Shifting my gaze, I turned again to Ren and Nora who looked like they were having the time of their life with their tango dance together with a few even cheering on them. These two are pretty surprisingly adept dancers themselves. The passionate synergy the two displays during the dance makes it quite hard to believe that these two aren't 'together-together' as Nora might say it.

I continued to watch the two for a moment before seeing something else that caught my attention. I spotted Penny dancing by herself while being escorted by two Atlesian Guardsmen. I'd approach Penny and ask her about what happened last Tuesday if it weren't for them, the fact I once ran away from two of these guys doesn't really help, so I decided to ignore her for now.

It was then I resumed walking. Unfortunately, I also wasn't paying attention to where I was heading, so I ended up colliding with someone. He turned around and I saw the unamused face of Cardin, holding a glass of root beer at his hand

Although he was a face I that did not bother me for a long time, my hands instinctively reached at my waist even though I didn't have any weapons holstered. I tried my best keeping a straight face and not show a semblance of fear as my inner being trembles at his glare.

But to my surprise, he didn't do anything to lash out, but instead his face softened. "Long time, no see, Arc."

Feeling a mixture of relief and surprise. I stood upright and replied. "Ditto, Winchester."

As much as I wanted to walk away, I just couldn't. There was something astonishing about Cardin's lack of hostility that I decided to remain where I was standing. He just looked for a second before talking once again. "Nice night, isn't it?"

I glanced away and looked at the ballroom for a second before making my response. "Yeah," I said, for the lack of a better statement.

Cardin took a sip from his drink and sighed as he gave me an empathic look. "Hey, I'm sorry for the way I treated you in the first month. I admit that I was an ass and you really didn't do anything to deserve what we did to you."

If he knew me more, I doubt he would be saying that but I was more than happy to accept his apology. Aside from locking me at my own locker and throwing saps that led me into the White Fang's shitlist, his bullying didn't really bother me that much. "All in the past. You're not picking on anyone, are you?"

"Nah, don't worry. It's mostly Russel and Dove the ones that screw around and I've trying to tell them to knock it off," he said in an annoyed tone. "Anyway, you're cool on my book, especially with what you did to the White Fang a few days to go; I never liked those freaks."

I sighed to myself and looked away from him for a moment. "Someone had to do it."

"And you were right to jump to the call." he smiled before raising his glass. "To Jauney-boy."

"To Jauney-boy." I only nodded as I wasn't holding a glass to return his toast.

"Say, has Russel and Dove tried messing with you lately?." he asked.

I shook my head. "Not really." Well, unless you count Russel's failed assassination attempt on me during the food fight last Monday.

"Oh good. I was afraid that those idiots would try to get us in trouble with you again." he wiped his forehead in relief.

You can say that again, I thought.

"So, we cool?" he asked.

"We cool." I gave him a friendly smile. He brightened up as he finished his drink. We were mutually satisfied that we are finally able to make up with each other.

I left Cardin as I began heading to the seats and approached Sun and Blake. Sun was wearing an outfit no less similar to his usual clothes, aside from the fact that his shirt was now dark gray instead of white and was wearing a white tie, basically keeping his style while somehow making it adequate enough to be counted as formal attire.

Blake was meanwhile wearing a purple dress that still retains her mysterious beauty while looking absolutely gorgeous.

"Yo, Jaune. I don't know what you just did, but I'm glad to see Neptune finally getting the guts to bust a move." Sun said, looking happier recently.

"Your welcome," I said before turning to his date. "You look beautiful tonight, Blake."

"Thanks." she flushed to her side, her bow noticeably twitching. "So... Jaune, you don't mind taking me out for a bit?"

"Sure," I replied. She beamed in excitement. I turned to Sun. "Do you mind, Sun?"

"Oh, don't worry about me. I just saw her dance with Yang and it really didn't bother me. It's kinda sweet, actually." he reaffirmed.

"Right then," I said before gently taking Blake's hand. "Shall we?"

She nodded in response and stood up. I took her to the floor before partaking in a partner dance together.

Dancing with her was quite pleasant, she seemed to be enjoying my company with a smile that I don't usually see her sporting.

Minutes went of swaying our interconnected bodies went by without saying a single word to another, I noticed her look upset for a moment.

"Something bothering you?" I asked, concerned about her well-being.

"Oh, I-I'm fine. I was just thinking about the times when you came for my help; I still feel a little guilty for getting you involved in those," she answered.

"You don't need to worry about that," I reassured. "You're here, and we're all happy that you decided to come. That's what matters right now."

"I guess you're right," she said. "I do really need this. It's actually nice to settle down for once in a while. Makes me ashamed of myself for being stubbornly restless for the past couple of days."

"We earned this," I said. "We're gonna have our first missions tomorrow, so it's best for us to make the most out of this night."

"You're right about that. Thanks again for everything you've done to help me. You're one of the nicest people I've met. I don't think I'm ever going to regret coming here."

"Your welcome. Just doing what a good friend would do."

She frowned for a bit before quickly turning it upside down. We continued to dance for a few more minutes, savoring the soothing presence with each other.

"So, how's with you and Pyrrha?"

"We're doing great. I always wanted to know more about her aside from the things everyone already knows about." I answered. "We're working on getting close. Well, we're not that close but we're getting there."

She hummed for a moment. "Well, whatever the case. I wish both of you the best with each other."

"Thanks. Our friendship means a lot to her; I'll do my best not to let her down."

Once we were done, I escorted her back to her seat where a content Sun was waiting.

"Thanks again," Blake said.

"You're welcome, Blake."

Sun gave me a thumbs up as I gave him a nod, I turned back and was startled when Team NDGO suddenly came to my front. They were wearing dresses colored purple, green, gray and blue respectively.

"Oh, we finally found you!" Nebula squealed along with her teammates. "We're not bothering you, are we?"

"Wha-what?" I asked before answering. "N-No. I'm doing okay."

"Oh, nice." Nebula said. "So, you don't mind if we take you out for a dance? Just for a bit? It won't take long."

"Don't sweat it. It's fine. It's a party after all." I accepted. Looks like yesterday's operation did pay off, for me at least. While I do find these girls to be attractive and consider myself lucky that they want me—I still don't plan at being polyamorous, I just thought I'd be nice with these girls and just give them a friendly dance.

"Yes!" Nebula pumped up with her teammates who are just as excited. Nebula turned back to her team. "Okay, as the leader I'll be taking him first. Don't worry, you'll get your chance, you'll just have to wait for your turn."

"As long as you're not hogging him, it's by me," Octavia said.

"Good." Nebula turned back to me and took my hand. "Now let us not waste any time."

I looked back at Sun and Blake, who were giving confound looks as Nebula drags me to the dance floor.

And there I was—dancing with a fan that adores me for things that I did not intend to do. If Dad was here, he'd be so proud at the number of girls I managed to get a dance with. She was a little anxious, as she was partaking in a partner dance with her idol who she taught was a courageous hero, but she was nonetheless enjoying it and reduced her anxiety by talking about stuff about Vacuo and her team, which was a little too much that I didn't remember enough to write it down. But she did bring up a question that caught my attention.

"This is going to sound a little weird but... are you and Pyrrha together-together?"

I was instantly reminded that certain kinds of people enjoy pairing me with Pyrrha. I slightly sweated at the question, but I still managed to answer as politely and gently as I could.

"No, not yet anyway," I answered. "But we do care deeply of each other; it's what partners do."

"Okay then," she muttered. "Sorry for asking; we just get a little too curious sometimes, and because you two seem to be pretty close."

I just shrugged off my own musings and continued to dance. Their thoughts of me are pretty harmless for the most part and it's actually kind of cute for them to think that, if a bit weird.

Dew came in and cleared her throat. I gave a nod to Nebula and shifted to her teammate. Dew was softer and was slightly more confident than Nebula, though her nervousness with me was still visible.

I continued to dance with her until it was Gwen's turn. I've heard her being a ballet dancer so our dance contained more movement compared to my previous dances. Aside from that, the only thing I could say about her is that she had the most elegant dress among her team.

Lastly, it was Octavia's turn. Octavia was easily the most emotional among her teammates. She was pouting at me while her face was as red as her hair. It took a bit for her to calm down and showed that she was enjoying it as I gave her a friendly look.

I noticed Pyrrha on her back, standing in the middle of the dance floor, waiting for me. Octavia noticed my stare and looked back.

"Oh," she said. I nodded to her, as she gave me one last bright smile. I gave her spin before taking her back to her team.

"It was nice dancing with you, Jaune." Nebula said, with her and her teammates each giving satisfied looks.

"Thanks for the company, ladies. Now if you excuse me I have a partner to satisfy." I said before I turned back and went to Pyrrha and took her dance once more.

"Having fun, Mr. Arc?" she playfully asked.

"Well, I am." I coyly told her. "Don't worry though, I haven't forgotten about my partner."

She gave a chuckle. We swayed our bodies to the ballad when it eventually became slower and quieter as the lights in the ballroom fade down, giving the ballroom a more tranquil tone, with the dancers around us began moving slowly.

I gazed into Pyrrha's eyes as they illuminate in the room, her beautiful face and the soothing atmosphere of the ballroom made me forget all my troubles. All I could think of at the moment was her.

"So, I've been thinking about what you said earlier," I said. "You really never had a friend like me before, did you?"

She glanced down for a moment and hummed. "I used to have a few friends but I haven't spoken to them for a long time. I couldn't blame them. When I became a champion, I got too distant from them that they thought that I forgot about them." she began to frown as I stood there and listened firmly. "They said that they couldn't see me the same way they saw me before I won my first tournament. Ever since that, competition became the only thing I've known, and I never made any meaningful relationships outside of my own family. That is until I met you and become part of this team, and I thank you for that."

She returned her smile as I gave her a comforting embrace, showing her how much I genuinely care about her despite my self-serving behavior. I did see her be more than a pawn; I always enjoyed our study and training sessions together, and the more I have gotten close her, the more I'm happy that she's my partner aside from her talents in battle. "As long as we're still partners, I'll always have your back."

I could feel her return the embrace as I comforted her at the dance floor; it was when I experienced such warm peace that I've never felt before, and I didn't want it to end and I'm sure she doesn't either.

As I was hugging her, I looked at my front, I saw Weiss staring me. She was still dancing with Neptune but her eyes were locked onto me while her partner seems to be oblivious at her expression. I curiously looked back her, putting us on eye contact for a few seconds until she began to look away from me regretfully. It puzzled me for a moment while keeping the same frown I held before abandoning the thought.

Pyrrha and I let go of each other afterward as continued to dance slowly to the music. This went on for another minute until it abruptly stopped as a spotlight illuminated above the DJ.

"May I have your attention please?" Nora's enthusiastically distinct voice spoke. We all turned to the DJ's corner, only to see Nora behind the DJ mixer with Ren at her side, looking like he's making sure she isn't breaking anything. The two actual DJs were standing behind them.

Nora cleared her throat. "Alrighty, since this we're in a party that was meant to show the best of us. Allow me to present to you The Pride of Mistral and her partner who recently foiled a bank robber—The Defender of Podunk!"

Oh no, she's not going to do what I think she's doing, is she? I asked myself.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please give it up for Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos!" she extended her arm and put the spotlight toward us.

We both froze as everyone in the room was staring at us. I turned to Pyrrha as we looked at each other, "Heh. Nora." I said, shrugging before offering my hand to her. "So, shall we?"

"I see why not." she replied with a smirk and took my hand.

The lights turned back on and a faster, upbeat song began playing. People say that I'm a decent fighter as well as a great dancer, and since Ozpin mentioned earlier that dancing and fighting are similar, Pyrrha and I are going to show this crowd how we spar.

We waltzed around the ballroom, displaying our synergy and coordination as partners. The audience began to cheer at our impressive choreography as Pyrrha and I savor the moment.

Our dance ended with a dip. We looked at each other as we panted while hearing the applause of everyone on the ballroom. We smiled before we stood back up and went to our table together and get some rest as everyone resumed their activities on the floor.

I have to admit, I'm rather thankful for Nora for bringing us to this moment, it's something that I'm never going to forget.

We settled down at the table, watching everyone enjoy their night. Our friends were having no less fun, with Neptune was dancing like crazy alone. The only thing that bothered me was I noticed that Ruby was missing. I shrugged off the thought, she was probably hiding somewhere considering as she's not a fan of these types of parties.

I suddenly heard doors being slammed open. I looked around until I saw two Atlesian Guardsmen searching around the ballroom as everyone goes with their own business not minding them. Seeing as they couldn't find what they're looking for they turned back and closed the door, making me somewhat curious at what they're up to, but chose to ignore it since it's not my problem.

Like all good things, it sadly had to end. It was already past midnight. Before it ended, there was a short awards ceremony. I won gentleman of the night, probably because of how everyone was charmed with me, with my previous exploit having something to do with it.

Amusingly, the best couple award went to Ren and Nora. Either because they both displayed great chemistry or maybe because Nora threatened to break the host's legs; knowing Nora, it's probably a little bit of both.

Well, it has been an overall amazing night that I almost forgot that I'll be taking my first tomorrow and I'm going to need all the rest I can get. I need to be in my best condition on the morning.

* * *

_Editorial Note: To clarify the abrupt entry of the two Atlesian Guardsmen, there was a situation at the CCT while the dance was ongoing. Ruby managed to make a record of it when she sought it out. Although this excerpt has little to do with Jaune himself, it does become much more relevant in the following chapters._

The Red Rose Diaries: Dance Dance Infiltration. 

The night has been… I dunno—fun, I guess? I'm not really into these types of parties. At least everyone else is having fun. Blake finally decided to go; Yang was hanging out with her pals as usual; Team JNPR was dancing happily together; heck, even Weiss got a dance with Neptune and I cannot be more happy for them. But what surprised me the most is that I saw Penny in the dance too! I really wanted to go talk to her, but there were guards that stopped anyone who tried to get near her. What a bummer, I guess we'll have to wait for another time to finally talk to each other again.

I was hanging around with myself when everyone was watching Jaune and Pyrrha dance. Those two dance really quite well with each other. I went outside to get some fresh air since I had nothing better to do inside, which is when I saw some ninja-girl running around, jumping from roof-to-roof and was heading to the Beacon Tower. She looked like she was up to no good and no one was trying to stop her, so I decided to go follow her and see what she's up to.

When I got the tower, I saw guards knocked out cold on the ground. I knew that I was going to face a villain, so I bought my rocket locker here and grabbed the Crescent Rose.

I went inside and went to the communications floor since it was the only floor where people actually go. I looked around the place while I had to deal with these stupid heels. I called to see if there was anyone around, which is when she decided to show herself. She suddenly started firing crystals of glass toward me which is when I was able to deflect them just in time.

I started shooting at her but she just blocks the bullets off with her hand as if it was nothing. I went in and tried to slash her down, only for her to flip back and fired explosive arrows at me with a bow that literally came out of nowhere.

Before we could keep on fighting, General Ironwood came out after the elevator opened, then suddenly she was gone. The only thing that he was able to see me and the cracks on the floor and he was not happy about it.

I'm in trouble again, aren't I?

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I thought the previous chapter was long. I mean 27,500+ words for a chapter centering on a dance and events leading up to it. What the frick, man. Considering that the next chapter is going to based on four or five episodes, it may possibly surpass this chapter.
> 
> I was hesitant to make Pyrrha use her semblance at a public match since Emerald said that she doesn't broadcast her power but I decided to say screw that and make use of it anyway because it was too much to pass the opportunity for her to use it against Umi's blades. It would have made a better discovery for Cinder's faction than 'oh shit, she moved a leg slightly with the Force'. I'm pretty sure the people of Remnant are already aware of Pyrrha's polarity, it's not something Pyrrha could hide especially with her fame, they just don't see her use it that much since she mostly uses it as desperation attacks and is conservative of her aura.
> 
> You may notice that I refused to change the names and personalities of Jaune sisters after their canon reveal. I've instead decided to merge Bleu with Saphron into one, so technically, Saphron still exists and she still has Terra and Adrian, except in this universe, she's now a Huntress who lives in Mantle instead of Argus with a brainy personality and a different name. The rest of the Arc family, however, will be my own take, so instead of Jaune being second or third youngest, he is the youngest. Considering that Jaune's parents acted differently and were based off from two main characters from Ciaphas Cain, it makes sense for Jaune's family to be different in this universe, not just Jaune himself.
> 
> If you are worried that the story is following canon too much, fear not, the following chapters will make the consequences of Jaune's actions to be much more obvious.


	9. Animal Control

_Editorial Note:_

_Within the following day, Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch and General Ironwood were gathered in headmaster's office to discuss the previous day's attack shortly before the freshmen were gathered for their first mission. Ruby was also briefly summoned to the meeting to provide her observations for the said attack._

The Ozpin Logs: Beacon Tower Raid: The Morning After 

 It appears that during yesterday's dance, inside this very tower, the communications floor was raided by an agent of Salem. James immediately notified us when he witnessed the detriments of the building and the unconscious bodies of the guardsmen that were under his command.

Furthermore, he also saw a certain prodigy at the scene when he arrived when she was supposed to be enjoying the night with the rest of her friends. She claimed that she confronted a hostile infiltrator who managed to escape before James' arrival. Of course, since Ruby had no reason to attack James' men and that the recovered security footage proved her claims, it was unwise not to believe her. I admit, Beacon was not the best when it came to security but it should be noted that Salem chooses her henchmen very wisely and carefully, so even if our fortifications were more adequate, they would have still found a way to get through.

We decided to discuss the incident first thing in the morning; it was dead of the night and everyone needed some rest after investigating the commotion for a short period.

Once the sun rose, the three of us convened at my office to put yesterday's attack into discussion. I also convoked Ruby to provide us with her eyewitness accounts. Being a step forward for Salem's plans, it instigated James' usual paranoia.

"They were here..." James muttered before furiously slamming against my desk. "Ozpin, they were here!"

"We're very much aware of that! Thank you, James." Glynda replied. "Fantastic! You're aware! Now are we going to do something about it or should we just stay the course and continue to ignore what's right in front of us?!" he yelled when a signal came from the entrance, prompting me to open my office's door.

"Come in."

"Ah! Sorry, it took so long." Ruby said as she emerged from the entrance. "Someone accidentally hit all the buttons on the elevator on the way up here… It wasn't me."

"Thank you for coming, Ruby. How are you feeling?" I said as she makes a step forward.

"Okay, I guess. I'd feel better if my bad-guy-catching record wasn't oh-for-three." she answered cheerfully but with noticeable trepidation on her voice. She then made a faint chuckle before seeing all of our unamused expressions. "Okay, so that's the tone we're going for, got it."

"Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a Huntress is all about," James said as he walks towards her and held her shoulder. "You recognized a threat. You took action. And you did the very best you could."

"Thank you, sir."

It was pleasing to know that despite his flaws, James proved that Atlesian military officials can be reasonable. Although he did worry her yesterday, not many authority figures are willing to hear what their subordinates have to say.

"Now, the general here has already informed us of the events that transpired last night," I said. "But now that you've rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add."

"Was anyone else with her?" Glynda stepped in. "Did she look familiar to you at all?"

"I...I don't know. She was wearing a mask, and she never said anything to me. But I know she fought with glass  **[1]**. I don't think that was her semblance, though. Her clothing lit up whenever she attacked." she answered, hence bringing us the mysterious figure on the Bullhead during our initial meetings with Ruby.

"Save for the glass, that sounds like the woman I fought the night we met Ruby." Glynda pointed out.

James was rather skeptical, however. "Embedding Dust into clothing is an age-old technique. It could have been anyone."

"Wait. You think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?" Ruby asked.

There was a short pause for a moment. While I am not going to deny the possibility as Salem is known for using proxies and scapegoats for her schemes, it is yet to be confirmed that those criminals have any sort of connection to her and her inner-circle. "It's possible. But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together."

"Actually, I-I think I remember her saying something about a hideout or something… in the southeast. Just outside the Kingdom."

Although it did contradict her claim that the assailant did not mouth off a single word for her, I cannot be helped but be intrigued by her statement. Southeast outside Vale? That is where Quadrant 5 is located, the region containing Mountain Glenn. "Interesting."

"I thought you said the intruder never—" Glynda attempted to point out before I interjected.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby. Why don't you go and spend some time with your team? You have a big day ahead of you."

"Any time." she turned and headed for the exit.

"And Miss Rose…" I called her out before she was able to leave. "Please try and be ... discreet about this matter."

"Yes, sir." she nodded and left immediately.

Once she was no longer on the premises, Glynda and James turned back and faced me. "Well, there we have it. We send as many troops as we can to the southeast, find out exactly what's going on, and eradicate any forces that stand in our way." James proposed.

"Why must your answer to everything involve a triumphant display of military bravado!?" Glynda huffed. "You treat every situation like it's a contest of measuring di—!"

"Glynda!" I raised my arm and cut her off in the midst of her sentence before she could induce her unprofessional and unladylike vulgarity, which is especially unbearable when she is influenced by alcohol during a certain special day.

"Well, he does." she hissed, which I cannot deny; despite his best intention, James can be very reckless.

"She's right. As much as I too would love to end this situation once and for all, we must remember that this may go beyond Vale; Beyond Beacon. And if this truly is part of some master plan for which we know not the final move, we mustn't be so bold. Nor can we risk the spread of panic."

"I have served you faithfully for years..." James uttered. "But if you mean to tell me that your plan is to really hold the defenses, and wait—!"

"It is not!" I asserted as I stood away from my chair. "You're a general, James. So tell me, when you prepare to go to war, which do you send in first? The flag bearers, or the scouts?"

He sighed and crossed his arms. "What are you suggesting?"

"Today is the day when the first-years have their first missions; there is a mission at Quadrant 5 that is yet to be accomplished, the same region where the Southeast outside of Vale is located. And I know a team suited for the job."

"But isn't that mission restricted to first years?" Glynda reminded.

"I'll be taking advantage of a loophole within the school's system," I said with an affirming nod. "I know that this mission is dangerous for freshmen, but it is not ordinary freshmen I will be sending."

Glynda puffed; she already knows which team I was referring to as they made spectacular performances in her class. "Wouldn't this be violating staff protocol?"

"Remember who you are talking to, Glynda." I firmly reminded. "As you know, I have done far worse deeds in the past to meet ends. And being the headmaster, the rules I made and dictate cannot be above me. I'll change them for myself if I have to."

"I only hope you know what you're doing," she muttered as she and James both gave me incredulous expressions, but despite this, they know that all they could do was comply.

"I can assure you. Neither of you would be disappointed."

Nor would they disappoint me. So Salem thinks she made some progress, doesn't she? Well, it is time to make ourselves even then.

**=o=**

  1. _While it's possible to create glass through dust—specifically fire dust, the investigatory report of the attack actually indicates that the infiltrator used ice dust, which was proven after it melted minutes after._



* * *

**Chapter 9**

**Animal Control**

* * *

 

> _Become a Huntsman_
> 
> _They say you'll be a hero_
> 
> _But is it worth it?_
> 
> **_-A Mistrali poem (a haiku, to be exact) found near a skeleton of an unidentified Huntsman inside a deep cave._ **

 

As much as I want to deny it, but unfortunately, today's the day every blood-thirsty student was looking forward to. It has been bugging me the moment the dance was over. It was the first thought that came to me when I heard my alarm and woke up. I went to the bathroom to clean myself up, I washed my own face before gazing my own reflection at the mirror and convinced myself to relax; I have formidable teammates and I don't necessarily have to pick for something risky. First missions are usually made to be tame since we're just freshmen who're barely old enough to drink. Not to mention I heard that some experienced Huntsmen would be accompanying us so there's not really much to worry about.

Leaving the bathroom to take my breakfast. I went for a round of tanna and florn cakes. As I was enjoying it, I almost spilled my drink after hearing Nora suddenly scream when she learned that her box of pancake mix was empty. Glancing at my side then seeing Ren rubbing his belly with a satisfied look, he immediately stood upright and changed his expression back to its usual stoicism when he noticed me staring at him. But unfortunately, if Nora's face was any indication, she wasn't buying any of it.

So this how they both start this morning after their totally-platonic night together and even winning Best Couple. Well, I was done eating before things got heated between the two anyway.

I immediately went to literally pack my bags for the journey ahead of me. We plan to travel light, so we only carried what we need; it would be a pain in the ass to carry a stockpile of items while hunting for Grimm on a glorified errand that could last for days depending on how unfortunately long our assignment ends up becoming.

I looked away from my bag for a moment and looked at Pyrrha, she looked at me back and sported a blush at me, remembering the wonderful night we had recently.

"Good morning." I greeted her.

"Good morning…" she replied sheepishly as she glanced back at her bag for a moment

"So… big day ahead of us, huh?" I said while I was at the process of organizing my bag.

"Indeed it is." she nodded before giving a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we'll be right behind you.

I brightened up knowing that my teammates still down with me, even though I still intend to use them to carry me out of unwanted trouble.

"Alright," I said after I zipped my bag closed and stood up. "Is everyone all set?"

"I'm ready." Pyrrha stepped in, now wearing her sling bag.

"We're all geared up and ready to go!" Nora looked like she's cheered up, though she's noticeably agitated at Ren for eating her last batch of pancakes.

"Will all first-year students please report the amphitheater." Miss Goodwitch's voice said on the dorm building's P.A.

"That's our cue," I said as I led my team out of the dorms and navigated our way out of the residence hall.

"Hey guys, is it just me or do you guys hear barking?" Nora said as we were walking down the hallway before making a shrug. "Eh, it's probably just me."

"Speaking of animal noises, you still got our codes, right?" I asked.

"Yes, we do." Ren nodded. "Everything's the same, but if you haven't heard by now, my team attack with Nora are bear roars henceforth."

"That settles it then." I opened the building's door and left the building. "Okay, here we go." I breathed out.

We went to the auditorium and saw it packed full of students on their combat outfits who all looked eager for their upcoming field trip. We dropped our bags on the corner so we don't have to stand here for minutes with this weight. We stood behind the crowd of Beacon students, few of whom glanced upon recognizing us, particularly me and Pyrrha. I glanced around when I spotted Nebula and her team among the throng of Shade students who were right beside the column of Beacon's students. She waved at me as I waved back since I had a pleasant time her and her team yesterday, it was rude not to.

The murmuring faded once Miss Goodwitch spoke up. "Quiet! Quiet, please. Professor Ozpin would like to share a few words before we begin." she announced.

The Great & Powerful Ozpin came into the podium and began his speech. "Today we stand together—united. Mistral. Atlas. Vacuo. Vale. The four Kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago—the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression. A war that was about much more than where borders fell or who traded with whom, but about the very idea of individualism itself. We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression. And as you are well aware, that was something many could not stand for. As a result, those who opposed this tyranny began…" Blah, blah, blah. History. History. Colors. Colors. Freedom. Freedom. Freedom. Peace. Harmony. Despotism is bad. You're gonna be Huntsmen. It's almost time for the Vytal Fiesta, amigos.

What, you really think I'm just gonna stand there and write his whole speech word for word about things you should already know about?

"…As first-year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional Huntsman or Huntress on a mission." he continued his speech as holographic boards containing missions began appearing around the sidelines. "Some of you may be taken out of the Kingdom for several days. Others may work within the walls for the rest of the week. But no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best."

Well, that speech was a lot longer and less harsh than the one on our first day, that's for sure. At least he didn't make any subtle messages directed at me this time around.

The audience clapped at his enlightening words of encouragement as he walked away from the podium. Everyone on the crowd began to disperse as they went to a board so they could select a mission.

"What are we waiting for?! Come on, let's go!" Nora excitedly squealed before dashing to the nearest board, prompting the three of us to quickly follow her.

I only needed to pick the least dangerous mission I could get. I should also stay away from missions that take place inside Vale. I'm sure White Fang hit squads are still looking for me for what I did last week. When we browsed the board, we were met with three options and it felt like looking to a video game's difficulty selection that was out of order.  **[1]**  The board made it perfectly easy for me which to pick.

Search And Rescue: 

  * Missing Supplies
  * Quadrant 4
  * Mission Start: ASAP



Search And Destroy: 

  * Moderate Grimm Activity
  * Quadrant 5
  * Mission Start: ASAP



Village Security 

  * Increased Grimm Attacks
  * Quadrant 5
  * Mission Start: One Week



The second one's sounds simple enough as all we had to do was clear an area out of any Grimm and then we're off. The first one, while it certainly sounds trivial in paper, it'll probably be an annoying scavenger hunt, it would involve trekking through the wilderness which are densely packed full of Grimm, and who knows how large the search radius would be if we were going to look for several missing supplies; the journey would wind up longer than expected. The third one—Village Security wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for the label 'Increased Grimm Activity', plus, it doesn't start until next week; its credits to carrots that the village would have been destroyed by the time we get there if someone recently requested for Huntsmen once Grimm were multiplying in that location. Search And Destroy appeared to be less complicated than the other two that they were barely even a choice for me.

"All of these sound boring," Nora said, sounding disappointed for the lack of missions that would have caught for her excitement, meanwhile I was pleased with the straightforwardness of the near-absence of complexity of the second one.

"I suggest we take the first one." Pyrrha chimed in as she took a step forward. "We only needed to look for supplies while dealing with a few Grimm."

Normally, I would agree with Pyrrha's proposals, but this wasn't one of them. "Thank you, Pyrrha. But I believe we should start with the second one—Search and Destroy with moderate amounts of Grimm. Know we trained ourselves for this but we should start with something nice and slow for now. We just need to warm ourselves out before we take on something more challenging."

"Sounds like a reasonable choice, I really don't mind at all." she said; thankfully, without any further objection. This was not something I want to argue about.

"That's good enough for me!" Nora cheerfully complied. "The only thing I wanted is to smash Grimm with you guys again!"

"I don't know." Ren skeptically uttered. "Don't you think that this mission sounds a little too easy to be true?"

"What do you mean by that, Ren?" Pyrrha asked, looking as confused as I do.

"The mission says it only has moderate Grimm activity, but Village Security takes place in the same quadrant as that while it says that Grimm attack there are increasing."

Now that he mentioned it, it does seem odd that region says that the Grimm attacks were growing, yet only says it has moderate Grimm activity. But I thought he was worrying too much and I wasn't going to waste an opportunity into getting an easy mission.

"You're probably overthinking it. It probably says Grimm activity would only increase if the threat wasn't dealt with by now."

"Then why is the mission being placed along with it? It doesn't make sense." Pyrrha pointed out.

Gee, I don't know. I just wanted to take the relatively safest mission we could get for crying out loud.

"No, maybe you're right." Ren shook his head. "I'm overthinking this. Being in the same quadrant doesn't really mean it's in the exact same area. Let's just take what you're going with."

I sighed. "Search and Destroy it is then." Without further ado, I reached the selection with my finger. I typed in my team's name and entered it when a message popped up saying that we accepted the mission and gave us instructions on what to do next. I turned to my team and nodded at them. "Alright, our Huntsman would be waiting for us at dock 13. Let's get to it."

"I can't wait! I've never been this excited since we got to Beacon. May the rise of Team Awesome commence!" Nora pumped.

Yeah, hopefully, it won't involve any stupid large-class Grimm that complicates things nor would it become an annoying mishap like that time with Forever Fall. I have been through enough misadventures for the past week and the week before that I hope that this would be over before I know it. With the training I've been giving my team these past months, I hope it pays off.

And was it just me or was I being watched all of the sudden? Either way, I don't want to think about it.

Since the missions begin the moment we accepted it, we picked up our bags and immediately left the amphitheater and traversed through the courtyard that was populated with students who were also heading to the Bullhead docks after getting their own assignments as well as uniformed upperclassmen who were either watching the freshmen or were minding their own businesses. Among these was Coco and Velvet who were taking a snack at a bench, with the former still wearing her signature beret and sunglasses combo even with her school uniform. Coco noticed me and shot me a finger gun gesture with a smile as her way of giving her regards.

We made our way to dock thirteen, with the Bullhead and the Huntsman waiting for us. His stature was somewhat lanky, he was wearing a safari outfit that contained a brown longcoat and pith helmet. We did not notice who it was until he turned to face us. Much to our surprise…

"Why, hello my good students!" Our history and social studies teachers pumped up, with all of us confounded at this unexpected revelation that even Nora was baffled.

"Professor Oobleck?!" I exclaimed. Having my jabbering teacher of mine was not exactly something I anticipated.

"Yes, I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary, children, seeing as you've opted to shadow a Huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission. I can assure you, we will not be establishing a single base of operations; rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland and making camp in any defendable locations we may stumble upon. I packed all of our essentials myself, plotted our air course, and readied the airship." he rambled as he walks back and forth in front of us. By some sort of enigmatic miracle, I somehow managed to record everything he said despite his chattering being so rapid, it was borderline incomprehensible. He then leaned in front of my face to remind me of something I should have thought when I was at his presence, at least he spoke comparatively clearly this time. "And its  _Doctor_  Oobleck, I didn't earn a Ph.D. for fun thank you very much."

He got off my face and I was still unsure of how to think of this. "Come now, children! According to my schedule, we are already three minutes behind...schedule!" he said for the lack of a better word dashing to the Bullhead within a second.

Well, I didn't know what to expect. Every professor here were all fully-trained huntsman after all but with all due respect for the guy, pro—Doctor Oobleck wasn't exactly the first person that comes to mind when one thinks about an experienced Huntsman. The thought only made you think about him killing Grimm by utterly babbling them about Remnant's history or politics.

"That was a surprise," Pyrrha said, giving us a flabbergasted look as she was noticeably grasping that an eccentric social studies professor would be our chaperone for this task.

"Well, he did manage to be qualified enough to become one of Beacon's teachers." Ren pointed out.

"But still, who would have known we'd be saving the world with him of all people?" Nora asked rhetorically, and this was his fellow member of the motor-mouth club.

"You guys are going to save the world?" Another high-pitched voice said. We all turned back and saw Ruby and her team approaching us. "You're going on world-saving missions without us? That makes me a little jealous, but I'm really happy for you."

"Don't sweat it, Ruby. We're all working on saving the world. Our mission isn't really that much of a big deal." I reaffirmed warmly. "Speaking of missions, where you guys going?"

"Oh, just outside the kingdom. We couldn't get our hands on the mission we wanted so we just decided to go protect a village. The Huntsman we are shadowing is some kind of sheriff, I think."

"Unfortunately for us, the mission does not start until next week." Weiss irritatingly murmured.

Protecting a village that starts next week. Huh, sounds like the same mission on our board. Though it's pretty weird why they would wait a week for a defense mission, these aren't exactly the type of girls I expected to take that mission.

"How about you? Where are you going?" Yang inquired.

"Oh, just somewhere outside the kingdom like you guys," I answered. "Nothing really special, just going get rid of the Grimm lurking around the area."

"Search And Destroy, right?" she replied and then gave an envied expression. "Lucky you, we were considering that ourselves, but we ended up with this because the stupid board says the one we were picking was not for first years and it was already taken, bah."

"Aren't there any other Search and Destroy missions you could find?" Ren asked.

"Not really." Blake shook her head, looking disinterested again. "We decided to go with Village Security because Ruby wanted to help some locals. Not really the mission we exactly wanted, but at least we'll be protectors or whatever."

I hummed for a moment. For whatever reason, my internal lie-detector told me that there was something they weren't telling. It didn't really bother me much so I dropped the thought.

"Yo, a little birdie told us that you girls won't be leaving till next week," Sun said as he and Neptune suddenly jumped in.

"Then you can party with us tonight!" Neptune proposed.

"Sounds cool. Anything to keep me busy while I'm stuck here." Yang assented. "Where are you two off to, by the way?"

"We're shadowing crime specialists. All inner-city detective stuff. We get junior badges." Neptune answered.

Looks like Sun really kept his word about assisting Vale's police, that's nice. I always wanted to be a detective; solving mysteries, fighting crime, all saving the day, all that kind of stuff. If I wasn't fretting about White Fang assassins, I would have certainly chosen to go on a mission inside the safety of Vale's walls and do missions that involve minimum fighting such as that.

"We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always exploding and junk, so we thought this might be a better way to check out the kingdom when it's, you know... normal." Sun shrugged at the last word. Like I previously said, I would have done the same if I wasn't trying to lay low from those terrorists after facing them exactly three times, especially when they had a homicidal killer on their side.

"Well…" I tried to speak when Doctor Oobleck shouted from the Bullhead, reminding us about the task at hand.

"Four minutes, children!" he then instantly returned back to the Bullhead afterward.

"Sorry, guys." I apologized. "Duty calls."

"You guys are going with Professor Oobleck?" Weiss raised her brow and looked at us disbelievingly.

"Don't worry about him. The doc is completely transparent with us. He may talk too fast, but I'm sure he means well."

"Well, suit yourself," Yang said. "Good luck out there."

"Stay safe, everyone!" Ruby cheerfully waved her hand.

"Kick some ass for us, Jaune. We wish you luck." Sun encouragingly said.

"You too, guys," I said, smiling at them before turning to my teammates. "Alright, let's not keep the doctor waiting."

"Search And Destroy, here we come!" Nora pumped enthusiastically as we went to embark on the Bullhead.

Staring at the Bullhead. I gave an agitated sigh as I have to travel by air again and to think I would have gotten used it by now considering how many times I went to the city and back to Beacon.

I really should have bought promethazine **[3]**  with me.

**=o=**

  1. _Missions Variety is limited for students at combat academies. While higher level missions are restricted to upperclassmen, many other high-tier missions are outright unavailable to students. Granted, these types of missions require full-huntsman training before they become available._
  2. _To anyone who is interested,_   _Team RWBY's aforementioned mission is featured in the extras titled 'Another Side, Another Story' when it gets released_
  3. _A drug used to treat motion-sickness and allergies. Back when Jaune used to have motion-sickness, he usually brings one of these with him. Obviously, this is not one of those times._



* * *

The ride to our destination only took fifteen to twenty minutes, but for me, it felt like it took hours. I have spent these minutes trying to get ahold myself while I try to endure my stomach's abysmal relationship with air travel. At least the air is open this time, I hope Mother Nature doesn't mind getting puked once... or twice.

"I recommend you inhale the fresh air, Mr. Arc. It would help you tolerate the flight slightly longer." Doctor Oobleck advised loudly enough so I could hear him as we were traveling on the Bullhead, which would have been helpful if I wasn't doing that because the open air was right in front of me for the entire duration of the flight it was why I even lasted that long.

I decided to just throw it outside to the woodlands at the outskirts of Vale, making feel a little better but I was still having headaches from the flight. There goes the florn cakes I just ate.

"It was a surprise to see you accompanying us, Doctor. We didn't see you much of a warrior." Pyrrha remarked.

"I admit I fancy myself more of an intellectual. But I can assure you, as a Huntsman, I've had my fair share of tussles." he replied.

"Tussles? You mean like the mushrooms?" Nora said after mishearing the doctor's uttering.

"They're truffles, Nora." Ren corrected.

"Like the sprout, right?"

"Those would be brussels."

"Whatever. You still owe me food, Ren." Nora growled. Ren just sighed and looked away from her.

"Besides, given my expertise in the field of history as well as my dabblings in the archaeological surveys, our dear headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular... assignment!"

I finally caught my breath and spoke. "So, not only we are on a hunt for Grimm, but we're also on a history tour."

"That's one way to put it! The southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves, but it is also the location to one of the kingdom's greatest failures!"

"Mountain Glenn..." Pyrrha uttered.

"Huh?" I did hear about Mountain Glenn but unfortunately, I haven't been paying attention enough to know more beyond its name, appearance, and location.

"Mountain Glenn was an expansion of Vale before it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off from the rest of the city," Ren explained.

"Precisely, Mr. Ren! And now it stands abandoned as a dark reminder." Doctor Oobleck added.

I gulped upon learning about it being overrun. In hindsight, I should have avoided this quadrant but I was so attracted by its apparent simplicity I didn't think of how eerily dangerous this region was.

There wasn't much time to panic and it was too late to convince the pilot to go back because we already have gotten past its walls once I found out that going here may not be a good idea. The place looked as bad, if not worse, as Ren and Doctor Oobleck described it to be. It was literally a ghost town, with nothing but defunct roads and dilapidated buildings everywhere, along with an eerily monotonous atmosphere, containing almost no color aside from shades of black, white and maybe brown; even the sky looked like it became dull the moment we entered the area. I spotted a few Grimm in the area too, hopefully, those would be the only Grimm I would encounter in this wretched hive.

I noticed the walls presenting the region had its text crossed out with black paint along with the large words written 'KEEP OUT'. Wonderful, I felt like I won a ticket to what could be the worst vacation spot in Vale.

"We're in the pipe, five-by-five!" the pilot's female voice announced. No turning back from this, unfortunately. This had better be a quick tour.

The Bullhead descended and hovered above the empty street. We all leaped off the Bullhead before it flew away. We all had our weapons ready—except for the prof..erm..doctor, who just made a sip from his container because even in this mission, he still can't let go of his coffee. I would have bought my tanna too if we didn't leave our bags at Beacon due to his instructions and because we want to do this with as little weight as possible.

We scanned around the abandoned ruins of a city, armed and ready, only to find nothing but maybe a few tumbleweeds at a distance despite this place being said to be overrun. It was a relief, honestly; a place with little Grimm was somewhere I wanted to take as my first assignment. Maybe this place wasn't as bad as I thought.

Doctor Oobleck broke the silence and called for our attention. "Alright! You four may still be students, but as of this moment, your first mission as Huntsmen has begun! From this point forward, you need to do exactly as I say! Do you understand?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Nora saluted.

"Just call me doctor, Miss Valkyrie. No need to be so overly formal now. I may be far above your ranks but I still prefer my humble title as a doctor."

"Of course, doctor!"

"So, what do we do now, doctor?" I asked

"Ah, yes, straight to the chase; I like it! As you've been informed, the southeast area has been marked as a recent hot spot for Grimm activity. Now, there are several possible explanations for this behavior, one of which being... Grimm."

"Grimm?" I said as we looked at each other confused at his redundancy.

"Grimm. A creature of Grimm approximately one hundred meters from us at this very moment." he said, prompting us to quickly turn around spot a single Beowolf coming emerging from a corner. We went to combat stances before Doctor Oobleck ordered us to halt. "Stop!" We lowered our weapons and stare at him puzzlingly. "There are a number of reasons why Grimm will congregate in this particular area, the most likely of which will be their attraction to negativity. Sadness, envy, loneliness, hatred. All qualities that are likely held by our hidden group harboring ill intent."

I immediately got what he is trying to convey, making me rather glad that we didn't storm the Beowolf the second we saw it as it would undoubtedly attract a horde. "So... what do you suggest we'd do?" I asked.

"We wait. We track. If this specimen leads us to its pack, that pack may subsequently lead us to our prey."

"How long do we wait then?" Pyrrha inquired.

"It's uncertain. Hours, days, weeks. Why lone Grimm have been known to stay isolated from the pack for months."

That long? Now I know why Team CFVY's mission took almost a week.

"Waiting, schmaiting. Couldn't we just blow them up?" Nora impatiently suggested.

"That would be a foolish move, Miss Valkyrie. While Grimm is known to be attracted to negativity, they can sense noise as well similar to that animal, and let's not forget about the reactions of the said noise." he explained. Nora calmed down after his lecture but still noticeably her aggressive self per the norm. Doctor Oobleck then noticed a disconcerting sight. "…and there's the whole pack."

We alarmingly looked back and saw more and more crawling out shortly before they turned to our direction and growled at our presence.

Oh crap, I thought. I gripped the handle of my sword firmly as they stare at me with their red eyes as they began charging at us.

"And now they've seen us."

Yeah, we could see that!

"I guess tracking them won't be necessary," I said, aiming my pistol at the pack who was getting near us by the second. "What should we do now, doctor?"

"You topped combat class last semester with flying colors, did you not? I'm sure you know it by now, Jaune!"

I started to ponder hastily what to do with this horde while trying to calm down and not feed more fear to the incoming Grimm. Fleeing was simply not the option; I'm supposed to be a fearless leader, after all. I've managed to make the coin drop before the pack was able to get close to us. "Nora, smoke."

"Without another word!" Nora expeditiously changed her hammer to its launcher form and fired a smoke grenade within the pack.

The Beos went to a halt as pink smog began taking over their surroundings. I turned over to Pyrrha and nodded to her. I expanded my shield before Pyrrha got on it and I threw her to the pack as Pyrrha began spinning with her spear. Ren, Nora and I charged in, clearing the area of remaining Grimm.

Thanks to our weapons being slightly upgraded, the Grimm fell quicker than they were before. My laspistol managed to shot down the Beowolves with only one or two shots, this pistol was made to cut down aura and since the Grimm lack any of them and Beos being one of the weakest, they were barely a threat.

A distant growl was heard as another batch of Beowolves began rushing toward us. We all switched to our range weapons and opened fire, running a third of the wave before switching back to melee once they got close (also so I could save ammo. Laser ammo packs are not cheap, especially since I wasn't able to loot anyone recently.) With our coordination and combined strengths, they never stood a chance.

"Fear us, soulless creatures, for we are Team Awesome!" Nora boasted after smashing the head of the last Beowolf flat. "All your attempts to destroy us are in vain."

If the Grimm wasn't souless, they'd be wetting themselves by now, not because of Nora's cheesy boasting but on how effective we operated, and we would have gotten home and called it a day.

"Excellent work, students, as expected from a team with the likes of yours." Doctor Oobleck remarked. "But let us not celebrate yet. This is without a doubt, the first of many of Grimm encounters we will be having inside this desolate community. Let us move forth."

My teammates all nodded and followed him while I panted for a few seconds before complying as well. Our weapons still unsheathed as Grimm could be around every corner.

It's pretty obvious that I don't like this place; I already wanted to get out and I've only been here for a few minutes.

**=o=**

  1. _The quadrant was not in the city itself but considered itself as a part of the kingdom prior to being overrun and becoming too inhospitable._



* * *

To summarize what we have been doing for the past couple of hours, we have been doing the same routine of wandering around the ruins and killing every Grimm we come across as I look around and scour for things I could use. We have been racking kills of a substantial amount of Grimm and it is still said that the Grimm numbers here are still far more than plentiful, making me question the actual degree of Grimm activity around this area. Honestly, it was refreshing to fight the Grimm again; I almost forgot how easy it is to take out the more common, lower class Grimm, especially with teammates at your side.

"Alright, now. That's it for the duration of the morning! Let's take a short break and have your midday meals. We cannot afford to have empty stomachs during a hunt, it would be unbeneficial for the morale. So sit down and rest! I have bought food for us to eat." Doctor Oobleck announced.

"Oh, finally!" Nora said before turning to Ren. "You better not hog the food this time," Ren replied by rolling his eyes.

I pulled my sword from one of the Beowolf's decaying corpses and went to catch up with the others. "Hey, Doctor. Correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't this area supposed to only have moderate Grimm activity?" I questioned. "This is literally the 157th Grimm we just killed; I know this because Nora was keeping track of our total kill count. I don't know exactly how many Grimm defines what's high or low, but I'm pretty sure that number is not moderate."

Doctor Oobleck took a few seconds to star at me and be baffled by my statement. "Moderate Grimm Activity? On Mountain Glenn? Is that what the missions briefing told you? Surely there has to be some error at the mission board." he remarked. "Mountain Glenn has been destroyed for more than a decade, it's ridiculous to think that it would contain only a moderate amount of Grimm after years of infestation! Come to think of it—this mission was not supposed to be a available for freshmen, making it strangely suspicious that you managed to take this assignment in spite of how hazardous it is. Then again you are considered to be one of the most exceptional freshmen we had in a long run and you have been doing spectacular so far. So regardless of what the answer is—this is our mission now and we are not going anywhere until it is completed or if there is a particularly dire situation that would force us into a retreat."

This pretty much confirmed my fear of this being a more dangerous mission than it was presented. If I were aware that this would be a high-risk mission inside one of the worst places in the kingdom I would have been searching for missing supplies on the woods like crazy by now or maybe even wait for a stupid settlement defense mission for next week that takes place on the very same quadrant. I was terrified but I also was curiously suspicious at what made the board label it as something easier than it is, it really made me think.

I also realized something—Yang mentioned earlier that they were trying to sign themselves up for a Search And Destroy mission but said that it was restricted to them since they were first-years and that it was already taken. This could be the very same mission that they were trying to take but ended up going to me because for some reason it presents itself to us as a task that was considered to be neither too easy nor too difficult and even allowed us to take it. Something or someone wants me here and I intend to find out. I don't know why would Team RWBY want this particular mission  **[1]** , but whatever the reason, I'd kill to switch places.

I silently groaned and decide to go and take my lunch. I lost my breakfast earlier on the Bullhead, so my stomach was lacking some food.

"Sounds a little scary, but I'm okay with it! I get smash more Grimm and have fun for a bit longer." Nora cheerfully chirped. "We shouldn't have too much trouble because we're like the best of the best!"

Thankfully, even with years worth of achievements on her belt, Pyrrha wasn't overconfident. "We should be more careful, regardless. If it's true that this mission is actually more dangerous than what it is presented to us, then we should stay alert as something unexpected may happen.

Ren backed her up. "Pyrrha's right, Nora. While we may be recognized as one of the most, if not most remarkable first years of the academy, we cannot afford to be reckless at something more serious than we anticipated. This is still our first mission, after all."

"I couldn't agree more," I uttered before settling down and taking my lunch. Nora frowned before nodding at the acknowledgment of how rigorous this mission could be. At least, some sense is knocked into her.

We were all sitting down at a circle, taking our respective meals that the doctor bought for the trip. All I ate was canned soup, which wasn't much but at least I got something to eat; beggars can't be choosers, as the saying goes. Luckily for Nora, the doctor for whatever semblance of reason bought a turkey which Nora was able to have most for herself. It wasn't cooked when it was shown to us but there's nothing a little fire dust won't do. She did share a few of the pieces for us (well Ren got the smallest there is but he doesn't seem to mind, at least it made Nora let go of her grudge.), but she ate almost the entire thing within  _four_  seconds. I kid you not,  _four seconds_ ; I counted. Makes me wonder why she isn't fat by now.

In the middle of our break, something went to Pyrrha's mind and decided to ask Doctor Oobleck about it. "Excuse me, doctor. I ask this with all due respect and forgive me if I offend you, but shouldn't you be assisting us in combat? You're an experienced Huntsman, are you not?"

She did bought up a good question. For the past couple hours of wandering around this place looking for Grimm to kill, I haven't seen him take up arms and fight so far, he only stood behind the sidelines while occasionally providing instructions if necessary (which is something I wish I was doing instead) and analyzing anything anomalous that caught his attention. I know that the Huntsman you are shadowing isn't exactly here to hold your hand and it's more rather that we are here to assist him, but I haven't seen him do Huntsman stuff yet.

"Ah, but I am in action! Scouring the ruins of this once-great city for any signs of irregularity! Not every mission is filled with daring and heroism, children. Sometimes it's just a heightened form of extermination!" Doctor Oobleck answered. "Remember, this is a job, and you all signed up for it. I do hope you understand that."

Except this was not exactly what I signed up for. I muttered to myself as the good doctor finished eating picked up his belongings and began leading the way.

We caught up and finished our lunch before going back to following on whatever we were doing for hours to come.

**=o=**

  1. _Few days prior to that mission, we discovered that the White Fang was holding a hideout somewhere in the southeast of Vale. When our attempt to take the Search and Destroy mission failed, we decided to take the Village Security since it was located in the same quadrant. We were hesitant to choose that mission since it begins within the following week and Blake wanted to stop the White Fang a soon as possible, but it was the only alternative we could make. We planned on scouting the area in the meantime but we would later discover that it was unnecessary thanks to a certain someone's actions._



* * *

I don't think it's necessary to write down what I did the whole afternoon, otherwise, I'd be telling you that we'd trekked around, found some Grimm and killed it, took any items of value, rinse and repeat.

Much to my relief, despite being a place that was supposed to be extremely hazardous, it wasn't really that exciting as I worried it would be. We just fought the same Beowolf pack with a few Scavers and an occasional Ursa. It was actually less dangerous, if a bit longer, than the missions I took at Pucelle during the break. I don't know if it's because of my team's cohesion or is it because of the quantity of Grimm on the area is just so high that it was classified as difficult, but in actuality, this mission isn't actually all that bad.

"Alright students. I believe that will have to do for today. It's going to be dark soon." Doctor Oobleck finally announced after we finished dispatching the last Grimm pack as he removes his backpack. Everyone was panting for air out of exhaustion while wiping off their own sweat. "You three, set up camp in that building." he threw his bag to the group before Pyrrha catches it. "Oh, and please do make sure there are no more of those... creatures. Your leader and I are going to secure the perimeter. Come, Jaune." he walks forth, gesturing me to follow him.

"You're the doc, doc." I nodded as I trail him to wherever he is taking me.

He took me around the edge of the mountain that overlooks the forest. There I witnessed six mammoth-like Grimm—Goliaths, to be exact—all lined up marching through the forest, one of them making a howl loud enough to be heard from where I was.

Knowing that these Grimm were far too much for us to handle, it was obviously better to keep them unprovoked. "I'm guessing we're only going to watch them until they go away, right?"

"Correct, and since even the strongest of our combined attacks will do nothing more than agitate a Grimm of that size, there was no reason for use to induce its wrath." the doctor nodded.

I made a relieved sigh. "So, what'll we do if it comes here and attack?" I then asked for good measure. In case they could feel our emotions and aura from our location, it was better to stay prepared.

"Fret not, Jaune. Those Goliaths are not concerned with us." he says before giving me another lecture, unlike most of his history lessons, this one was engrossing enough that I was able to perceive his every word. "Not every Grimm is mindless, or rather not every Grimm is still mindless. You see, the Grimm you see before you are so powerful, so superior to the Grimm you fought, that they've undoubtedly lived hundreds of years, and in that time between killing humans and attacking our borders, they have done one important thing: They've learned. They've learned that when they attack our borders, they're likely to die, and what we lack in strength, we make up for with will and that killing one human will only bring more."

So, what he was telling me is that the Goliaths have lived long enough to gain the ability to think. Grimm are still Grimm, though. Intelligence or no, the only good ones are dead ones and it was our job to make them 'good'. Remnant is never going to know peace until the very last Grimm is vanquished. Someone needs to get rid of those things and that person is sure as hell won't be me. As much as I wanted them gone like any other normal person, Doctor Oobleck was right about them being too dangerous to provoke.

"What do think they're doing near the city anyway?" I asked.

"Waiting."

I widened my eyes and turned my head to him. "Waiting for what exactly?"

"Their next prey; the meaning of their existence; maybe even death. All we know is that they're waiting for something." he answered as he stood firmly at the group, one of them was facing right toward the city before turning back to follow the rest and continued to follow the others.

Since the Goliaths were leaving and apparently have no intent on going to the city (hopefully). Doctor Oobleck decided we were done watching over them and left the post.

"So… doc." I began uttering as I follow him back to regroup with the others.

"What is it, Jaune?"

"Mind if I ask you something?"

"Let me guess, you are wondering why I've been interrogating your teammates all day?" he stopped as he turned toward me.

Wait, you have? I thought as I paused seeing he hasn't questioned me yet before going to back to asking him. "Actually, I just wanted to ask on what made you become a Huntsman." I mean, he could have just chosen to be a regular professor—I mean doctor or whatever, but I was curious on what made him follow a life of a professional monster-slayer.

"Look around and tell me what you see." he said.

"A ruined city beyond recovery that is filled with monsters?" I answered. Hey, don't judge me, I only did what I was told.

"In a way, that is correct. It's true that this is a ruins a city that was once a prosperous community. But you have to ask yourself, what if it was never successfully overrun by Grimm? Of course, the answer would be is that this place would still be full of life and no one would have fell as a victim during its fall. But that's the point, to think about the lives that could have been saved during that tragedy." he said, continuing to walk as I followed and listen. "As a Huntsman, it is my job to protect the people, and although I am capable of doing it with traditional weaponry, I believe I can make a much larger impact if I do it with my mind. As a teacher, I'm able to take knowledge, the most powerful weapon of them all, and place it in the hands of every student that passes through my classroom." We stopped and he looked at our surroundings. "I look at this wasteland, and I see lives that could have been saved, but I also see an opportunity—an opportunity to study these ruins and learn from this tragedy, and therefore become stronger."

The doctor briefly walked away from me as I stood to ponder his words. When he mentioned about what could have been, I only thought of something that I didn't want to think about as I had been trying to bury that memory for years now. It may have been his motivation for becoming a Huntsman, but to me, it was why I gave up on my old dream of becoming one. I'm just not cut out for this job, no matter how many people that say otherwise.

"I am a Huntsman, Jaune because there is nothing else in this world I would rather be." he halted shortly afterward to ask me one more question. "What about you?"

"What about me?" I looked back up to face the doctor and answered firmly as I masked my own insecurity. "Not only I want to live up to my ancestor's greatness, but I also want to help those who couldn't help themselves. I couldn't just stand there and watch people suffer, I had to do something. Hence why I'm here." I answered. If I was talking as my younger self, I wouldn't be lying. But I am no longer the boy that I used to be. Now I'm just some guy who was unfortunate enough to be living his childhood dream who is just afraid of losing his life and dignity.

"I hope you're being sincere at what you just said." the doctor gave me a smile before he turned his back to return to the others as I stood there for the minute, gazing at the sky before the sun sets.

Sadly, I'm not…

Hours have past and it was already night. We all sat around a campfire inside one of the city's crumbled buildings that were fortified enough for us to stay the night. Somehow, it wasn't that uncomfortable; the temperature was adequately warm, and there wasn't a lot of mosquitos unlike most other times I went camping with my family. I also didn't have to worry much about the Grimm because the surrounding area was devoid of any of them since we spent almost all day clearing the ruins. Still, I'll keep my pistol under my pillow as I can't really be a hundred percent sure.

"Here's a meal you children look like you could use." Doctor Oobleck tossed a pack of marshmallows that was caught by Nora.

"Marshmallows!" she cheerfully squealed as she tore the plastic open.

"There's more food at my bag; feel free to have them. Now, eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for first watch?"

Pyrrha raised her hand. "I'll do it, Doctor."

"Splendid! I'll be upstairs if any of you need me for anything if so, do not hesitate to call me. Have a pleasant night, children!" Doctor Oobleck said before bolting away leaving only us four around the campfire.

We all unfolded our sleeping bags around the fire. Before going to bed, we all gathered around to roast our marshmallows. In retrospect, I would have bought my guitar and play some acoustics to add to the camping feel and make the atmosphere of this wasteland less ominous. But then again, Doctor Oobleck said that we don't need to carry anything unnecessary so the only thing I could do was whistle. It did its job of lightening the mood, so it was better than nothing.

Nora munches on her marshmallows once it was roasted enough, meanwhile Ren approached me to ask about something.

"Hey, Jaune did Doctor Oobleck asked you about why you wanted to become a Huntsman earlier?"

While I was rather surprised by that question, I was rather glad that I wasn't the only one that was asked with that. "Yeah, why?"

"Nothing. Just checking to see if the doctor interviewed everyone regarding that." he replied.

"So what did you tell him?" I asked out of curiosity. While I've been with Ren for months now, I didn't really know much about him aside from his fighting style, his companionship with Nora and the fact that they were both orphans who just go wherever fate takes them. We rarely go on lengthy conversations so I was interested in what he has to say."

"Nothing much. I just told him that aside from because I was good at it, I also don't want people to suffer the same fate as mine."

I raised my brow at his answer as more questions began popping up my head. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's a long story—even if it was shorter, I don't feel comfortable enough to tell you." he said. I saw Nora frown after she heard our conversation. Seeing their expressions and knowing how it feels to have something in the past haunting you, I decided to respect his decision to digress.

"It's alright Ren, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I assured him.

He gave a friendly smirk. "I'll be sure to tell you someday. Right now, I just want to rest. It's been a long day of exterminating the area of Grimm that I could use a good long sleep." he said as he went to lie down on his sleeping bag.

"Yeah, you do that." I nodded.

"There's still a few more marshmallows left," Nora said, showing me the remaining marshmallow on the pack. "Want some?"

"Thanks." I gave her a smile as I tooK two marshmallows and impaled them with my stick. Nora took the last three of them before we hovered them near the campfire.

She went and sat at my side. It was mostly silent, with the only sounds being the chirps of a few crickets, the campfire crackling and even a Beowolf howling at a distance. It wasn't until I decided to speak up that I find myself in a conversation again.

"So, the doc asked you too, didn't he?" I asked, with my eyes gazed at her.

She silently nodded without a word, which was a little strange given her talkative nature. I made a hum and went back to watching my marshmallows heat up.

"You know, before I went to Beacon, I never had any friends apart from Ren." she suddenly spoke, getting my attention as I turned to her again.

"Why is that?" I inquired, surprised upon learning that. Girls like her normally tend to be more outgoing, so I find it weird for a bundle of joy and energy to be lonely if it wasn't for someone who she has been sticking with for half of her life.

"I wasn't always like this. Y'know the happy-go-lucky gal who likes smashing Grimm." she said as I leaned in and listened closely to her while she cleared her throat. "Before I met Ren, I was just a lonely little girl with no friends, no family, and no home. I just wandered place to place looking for someone to take care of me. That's until I met Ren. I found out that he was also alone and that we only have each other." she spoke in a tone that was much calmer than her usual self. "So we became best buds for life and went from place to place, looking for whatever adventure we could find. We eventually found ourselves hunting for Grimm and I started enjoying it. I was loving the feeling of excitement and the satisfaction of slaughtering Grimm that I started savoring all the fun I have and told myself to stop worrying and be happy."

So this is where her zany personality came from? That's a little dark, but otherwise it was heartwarming to see that she was brightening up, no longer alone and found her identity as a Huntress.

"Adventuring and killing Grimm became our life. So we went to every academy where we could get ourselves into so we could become full-fledged Huntsmen.  **[1]** Ren was my only family until I became part of this team. For my whole life, I never knew what it felt like having a family until now." she turned to me and gave me a heartfelt smile.

I rested my eyes at her and was touched at what she told me and it made me more regretful of secretly treating her as a meatshield while still not letting go of my intention to keep using her as one. But even though I'm using her as a bodyguard of these school years, she was still a good friend that I'm grateful to have. "Well, I'm happy to know that we have you here with us." I soothed. "We'll stick together until this is all over."

"I hope it never ends then."

I could only keep resting my eyes on her and just smile, feeling ambivalent about the thought of staying with this team even after the end of the school years. I stayed like this until shortly after, my marshmallow suddenly started burning after neglecting it for too long. I flinched before hastily blowing away the flames until it was extinguished from my marshmallow which was now burnt black that it was barely edible anymore, much to my disappointment.

"Here. You could have mine." she handed me her stick that impaled her three roasted marshmallows. "I'm full anyway."

"Thanks," I said, taking her stick and munching the soft, warm marshmallows.

"I'm going to bed now. Good night, Fearless Leader. This day has been fun, and I hope tomorrow would be more exciting!" she chirped as she went to her bedroll and laid down on it.

"Good night, Nora," I said while hoping that the following day is more exciting won't be the case, at least not for me; I don't mind Nora having fun as long as it doesn't put me in grave danger.

I remained seated near the campfire for a few more minutes before going to bed as well while asking myself one thing that has been bothering me for a while again.

What am I really going to do with these people once this is all over? Who really knows? I'll just have to live with it and see.

**=o=**

  1. _There were some minor Huntsman academies that do not require formal education and accepted orphans. Hence, why Ren and Nora were able to attend such academies despite lacking any guardians nor having not attended any schools prior._



* * *

I couldn't sleep that night. Either because I was thinking too hard about the future, or because I was not comfortable sleeping somewhere in the ruins even though the place was wiped clean of any Grimm and Pyrrha was watching over us, or it was simply because of Nora's loud snoring.

Regardless, I decided to get up and check on Pyrrha and see how she is holding up. I thought that it could kill off the insomnia that was bothering me then.

I went to her post and saw that she was watching over the streets, holding Miló while it was on its rifle form. "You okay there, Pyrrha?" I asked as I carefully approached her.

"Oh, Jaune." she turned her head to me. She looked fine for someone who assigned to look-out for one-fourth of the night. "I'm doing fine. What do you need?"

"I couldn't sleep. I thought you could use some company."

"Fine by me." she said. I went next to her side and sat as she continues to guard our camp.

We both sat there, just watching the ruins for any potential Grimm that comes near. I did my best not to feel perturbed since it might attract Grimm into coming here; thanks to Pyrrha being at my side, I was a little more at peace. The sky was starless and cloudy but despite that, the ruins look slightly better at night. It's probably because the night sky offered more color than the dull, almost-gray color the sky on this place had during the day.

"Hey, Jaune. About last night..." Pyrrha suddenly spoke.

"Heh. I was waiting for you to bring that up." I chuckled. I was so busy doing the mission for the entire day that I almost forgot to ask her about that. "That night won't be something that you're going to forget, would it?"

"I definitely won't." she said. "It was just as fun as the food fight we had last Monday. It was one of the only gatherings that I enjoy so much that I didn't want it to end."

"It was a pleasure to make your night, and I intend to do it again if you don't mind," I smirked.

"I would love to have more nights like that." she happily said before turning back to watch the area. "This week is off to a good start, don't you think?"

"Yeah…" I muttered before being reminded about Doctor Oobleck's inquiry about our decision to become Huntsman. "So, Doctor Oobleck asked you about why you chose to become a Huntress, did he? What did you tell him?"

Pyrrha briefly frowned before answering. "Well. I told him that I chose to become one because I wanted to make good use of the training that I had since childhood than just use it to uphold my family's tradition of being a warrior." she then looked down and sighed as her tone becomes noticeably downtrodden. "But the truth is a lot more complicated than that. I wanted to see if becoming a Huntress would make me more than just a mere warrior, so I trained hard while doing my best to honor my family. As you could see, I was good at it that I won Mistral's Regional Tournaments four times in a row. But I never wanted to be this good, I just wanted to make my family proud. Now that my friends have abandoned me, I was afraid of disappointing my family that I could not afford to lose a single competition. I have become so fixated with winning that I almost forgot that I was finding why I chose this way of life." she bobbed her head upwards and her face brightened as she turned back to me. "But thanks to you, Ren and Nora, I think I now have my answer."

I continued to look back at her silently and kept listening. "I have forgotten what it felt like to have friends until I became part of Team JNPR. As I follow you and do my part as a teammate, I have grown to care about my newfound friends. That is when I began to realize the meaning of why I became a Huntress. To fight, not just for honor and for glory, but for those you care about."

She finally finished explaining her motivation when something hit her. "Oh, gods." she blushed and put a palm on her face out of embarrassment. "I'm sorry for making you hear me ramble again. I think I have gotten too ahead of myself."

"Don't be," I reassured her as I gave a chuckle. "It's nice to learn on what you are fighting for and knowing that there was more to you than just winning." I puffed for a moment. "We're not that much different when it comes to upholding my family's honor. I'm still doing my best to live up to my ancestor's legacy and all that."

"I don't think you need to worry about that. From what I've seen from you, I could say that they'll be proud of you." Pyrrha replied as she tried to comfort me back.

Sure, it does look that way, but little do anyone know that I wasn't keen on becoming like them nor do I believe myself to be that much of a great hero, especially when my so-called 'heroic acts' was only done to keep my dignity intact and to keep me out of harm's way.

"I can't really say that for myself, but I appreciate it," I said as I look back at her. "You know, you're not the only one who consider themselves to be lonely in this team. I just learned that Ren and Nora had no one but each other until they went to Beacon and as for me…" I hesitated for a moment, but I still managed to get her to say it without exactly ringing out something that I have been dodging for all these years. "I didn't have a lot of friends outside of my sisters. Most people I called friends back at home felt more like acquaintances at best."

"I'm glad we have each other then." she said as she put a hand on my shoulder.

"You're right on that one," I said, showing her a smile.

We returned to gazing over the ruins, satisfied with being comforted with one another. There was no denying that Mountain Glenn was a desolate wasteland, but as long as we were together, there was nothing to be scared of.

"So, Jaune… Do you have anyone particularly special in your life?" she suddenly asked. That question caught me off-guard. I did my best to not look surprised when she suddenly asked me that.

"No, not yet," I answered, taking a deep breath. "I did date a lot of different girls before but I haven't gotten anywhere with them. Soon after, I just decided to stop dating for a bit since I decided that it wasn't worth it."

"Oh. That must have been hard for you." she looked at me with pity.

"Don't worry about that; it's in the past. Besides, I was better off not staying with some of them." I reassured her. "I may have stopped but I haven't given up yet."

"That's nice to hear." she said before taking a brief pause. "So… you don't mind if we spent more time together. Just the two of us? As partners?"

I took a few more seconds to ponder what she just asked. "I'll be glad to, Pyrrha." I smiled at her as she looks back with a satisfied look.

However, the peaceful atmosphere between partners was short lived when we started hearing footsteps around the area that I started to wince at the sudden sound.

"Did you hear that?" Pyrrha asked as she stood up tensely and gripped her weapon.

"Where's it coming from?" It couldn't have been Ren or Nora, they were both asleep and it couldn't have been Doctor Oobleck either because I assume he was asleep as well, and even if he was, it couldn't have him because his footsteps sounded more distinct, these footsteps, on the other hand, sounded it was coming from two people.

She looked around before spotting something, making her hunker down and dragging me down with her.

"What's going on?!" I almost shouted at her abrupt action.

"Shh." she hastily shushed before going to my ear to whisper. "You might want to see this."

She let go of me and I went up to peek from cover to see what she spotted. I then saw a sight that almost startled me—two armed White Fang troopers on the road.

"You hear something?" one of them asked.

"I thought it was you, must be a Beowolf then," replied the other.

The first member puffed. "Let's just get back to base, I don't like patrolling this shithole in the night one bit."

"Yeah, you tell me."

Oh great, not those racist assholes again. I was almost close to avoiding these terrorist dipshits for a full week. What the hell are they even doing at an awful place like this?

Unless… Oh crap. Don't tell me they managed to track me down here—or worse—have a base set up on this mountain, I thought to myself.

"We should follow them." Pyrrha proposed, much to my shock.

"What?!" I shouted quietly. Why would I even put myself in even more trouble with the White Fang?

"They may be up to something and we may never be able to stop if we wait." she explained. "We beat them before twice, we could do it again."

I wanted to tell her that we should leave them alone because they were unprovoked and they haven't spotted us yet but I didn't want to look like a coward in front of Pyrrha so I went to the insane notion of agreeing with her. "Alright. We'll have to follow them ourselves. Let's leave Ren and Nora for now, we can't be stealthy if all of us are trying to sneak."

"Good call." Pyrrha concurred before we left our safe haven and follow these two terrorists so that we may find their hideout.

I already have my weapons ready so we decided to quietly and inconspicuously trail the two members across the street. It wasn't easy because there wasn't a lot of hiding spots aside from buildings, but we still managed to do so. Thanks to some miracle, our armors did not make any noise when we were sneaking behind them.

We stopped after we saw them enter an old sewer entrance, indicating that was where they were hiding at.

"Alright, that must be the entrance to their hideout," I concluded before turning back to Pyrrha. "We must go back and tell the others so we could take care of this tomorrow or maybe even later."

Pyrrha nodded in agreement as we turned back and headed back to camp. We were better off fighting those guys in numbers, they never had a chance then.

On our way back, I heard cracking noise as I looked down and saw that there was a crack on the asphalt below me. before I was able to throw myself out of there, the road collapsed open and I fell down towards its pit.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha cried out. I saw outlines around my armor before quickly disappearing within less of a second, indicating that she tried to pull me back out, but it was too late since I was out of her range.

I screamed for a few seconds before landing on my back. The fall hurt a bit, but thanks to my aura, the impact wasn't that bad. When I looked around, I immediately knew that I was somewhere underground, but strangely, this place also has the same desolated-looking buildings as the surface had. It looked like I ended up at an abandoned underground city, which seems to be the case.  **[1]**

I looked upward at the hole which was deep and dark enough that I couldn't see the surface. "Pyrrha!" I called out for her as loud as I could, hoping that she would at least heard my echo.

Shortly, I could hear echoes of her voice coming from up there. Before I was able to make a reply to that, two White Fang troopers suddenly barged in from a door and pointed their gun at me.

"Freeze!"

Oh, fuck me with a stick.

I turned back at them, almost shrieking at them barging in, but when they saw my face and realized who I was, they were immediately petrified.

"Wait a minute." One of them dropped their jaw. "Oh sh—"

Without delay, I took my pistol out from the holster and blasted them both down. I panted heavily out of agitation that I was facing the White Fang yet again. Another squad of White Fang soldiers became of the door with their guns drawn. Since I had nowhere to go I leaped from the cliff behind before I was able to be hit by one of their gunshots.

Once I hit the ground, I started running around the abandoned underground berg, going from cover to cover to avoid enemy gunfire as I desperately look for an exit while I heard an alarm blaring. I took out my scroll and tried to contact my teammates, but I wasn't able to due to the abysmal signal I was getting on this hellhole. So I was on my own until I somehow reunite with my team.

Sigh, I knew that this was a bad idea.

I kept running around while I cover myself with a shield as the White Fang tried to chase me down. I followed a trail of train tracks that led me into a tunnel. After going past the tunnel, I saw a few trains stationed on the rails. Little did I know, the tunnel actually led me to MORE White Fang members. Even worse, when I saw that they even had one of those fucking robots that Team RWBY faced off last week, which dropped a container when it spotted me. The terrorists all turned towards me and began to shoot. I raised my shield to deflect their gunfire before trying to run back, only to have the other White Fang members coming through there.

I went to the nearest cover and started blasting off the White Fang members trying to kill me while thinking of a way to get out of this mess because I cannot take on all of them, especially when they have an Atlesian Paladin on their side.

The gunfire stops as someone began marching in. "Alright, who has been causing this ruckus?!" I leaned out from cover and saw that the voice belonged to Roman Torchwick, still puffing a cigar even at this moment. "You! You nosy little brat. You couldn't just leave us alone, could you?" he growled when he saw me and threw away his smoke. "At least, you don't have Red with you, that twerp was getting on my nerves."

I took this opportunity to look around to find something that I could use to my advantage. There, I saw a bomb on the open, with a few White Fang members around it. I took a deep breath as I changed the clip of my laser pistol.

"Hopefully, you won't be as bad as her. I don't care if they are calling you the 'Valian Defanger'! Why don't you do me a favor and make my job easier by holding still and just cease and desist already!" Torchwick snarled before turning back to his faunus goons. "What are you idiots waiting for? Kill him! You want him dead, right?"

The troopers pointed their guns at me again while that one Atlesian Paladin began marching forward. My eyes only focused on that one bomb they made a mistake of placing there.

"Oh, go to hell," I muttered, aiming at the bomb before squeezing the trigger, firing a straight blast of laser fire to it. The bomb instantly detonated, sending nearby White Fang members flying, if they didn't blow to smithereens.

Welp, it's time to become the White Fang's Angel of Death again. If there was something we both could agree on, is that this wasn't a good thing.

Some of the remaining members became more furious while others started trembling before me. Regardless, I was determined to get out of this mess. So I got out of cover, charging with my shield as they try to shoot at me. I bashed at first member before slicing the two other troopers he was with before taking him down as well with a vertical slash.

I collapsed my shield and grabbed my gun and began firing at hostiles at a distance while I clash with nearby White Fang members. One such member tried charging me with an axe before I deflected it with my sword and fired his chest with my laser pistol then kicking him down to the ground.

After getting rid with most of the troopers in the area, left and right. Torchwick began firing missiles at me. I hastily dodged all of them until he started to command the Atlesian Paladin. "Get him!" he pointed at me.

The Paladin started arming its missiles and fired them at me as I quickly hunkered down and expanded my shield, managing to deflect the projectiles, but the impact of the explosion lead me flying before falling on the ground on my back. I faced the mech again and saw that it was readying its next weapon while I began rolling before standing back up. I knew that I had to run away because the way it's designed made little way for me to get rid of it without something to exploit.

"Enemies everywhere!" A White Fang member suddenly shouted. I looked at my back and saw terrorists began running away as my teammates and Doctor Oobleck finally arrive when they mow down White Fang goons on their way toward me.

"The cavalry is here, Fearless Leader!" Nora shouted as she was rushing toward me in the distance.

"Oh, for crying out loud! More punk kids?!" Torchwick made an infuriated yell before turning back to the Paladin. "Get rid of these pests right now!"

I saw the Atlesian Paladin adjusts and ready its missiles toward them. "Nora! Brr!" I bellowed as I began mimicking the sound of a bull. She fired her launcher at the Paladin, temporarily staggering it. She then grenade-jumped toward the Paladin as she changed to her hammer and smashed it down as neat as you please. She broke through the mech's torso until she founds it pilot before violently throwing him away.

"Oh, that's it!" Torchwick began to run toward the train. I tried to shoot him down, but I was only able to hit his hat and make it fly off its head. He was obviously irritated but didn't have time to retrieve it so he went straight toward the train. While I didn't know what was important about the train, my conscience intuitively told that it has to be stopped at any cost or else my life isn't getting any easier. Sadly, this means I don't have time to loot again. I would have gone straight to the exit on this whole, but I figured that letting Torchwick go free won't exactly put me in a better position.

I can't believe I'm doing this, I thought.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha cried out as she and the others finally got next to me. "Thank goodness you're alright. What's going on here?"

"I'll explain later, right now we need to stop that train!" I told as I started leading them toward the train.

"What's on the train?" Ren asked candidly as he reloads both of his SMGs while following me.

"I don't know—all I know it's nothing good!"

"Look!" Nora pointed to the open cargo on the other track, revealing items that they weren't able to load to the train on time. They consisted of a few weapon caches and some stolen Atlesian machines but most disturbing above all—a bomb.

"But these tunnels are sealed and the tracks lead to a dead end! If they're transporting bombs… then it must be…" Doctor Oobleck mused before getting to a seemingly terrifying conclusion. "Oh no…"

"Get to your places, we are leaving now!" Torchwick's voiced announced via a speaker.

"Oh, dear mother of mercy…" Doctor Oobleck muttered before shouting suddenly. "Stop that train immediately!"

Without another word, we all dashed to the train at a much quicker pace as the train began to depart. Fortunately, we all managed to make it to the last car. Now, all we need to do is figure out how would we exactly prevent this train from reaching wherever it's heading.

**=o=**

  1. _Mountain Glenn once had a subway system where it would be able to safely transport citizens to the main kingdom. The underground project became so ambitious that it became its own district. When Grimm attacks increased, the civilians tried to use the lower city as an evacuation site. Unfortunately, the Grimm managed to breach the walls and the Kingdom had to desperately seal off the tunnels_.



* * *

We went inside the first boxcar and saw a lone guard in it. Doctor Oobleck used his adjustable mace-slash-flaregun thingy, which also happens to be his thermos, to knock him out. Strange choice of a weapon, if you ask me. But it could have been worse, at least it doesn't have anything ridiculous like something sharp on the top, just imagine that.

"It really is those bandits again!" Nora said as she examined the member's uniform, she probably didn't link them to the terrorists I fought last Tuesday which was all over the news.

"I don't think they're bandits, Nora!" Ren replied.

"Mr. Ren is correct. Judging by their uniform and emblem, they appear to be members of a White Fang. An organization that I already mentioned in some of my previous lectures that it is unnecessary to elaborate them further." Doctor Oobleck informed. At least he described them quick enough that we only lost a trivial amount of time.

"What do you think is going to happen if we don't stop this train, Doctor?" I asked.

"It would crash right somewhere in the middle of the city! So we need to make sure this train doesn't reach its destination while figuring out a way how to defuse the bombs." he answered.

I gulped, realizing that now I'm in a middle what is essentially a bomb crisis. "But where do you think the bombs are placed? I don't see any of them here, and judging from what I've seen of them, they're not small."

"The hatches above the car!" Nora reckoned. "They're probably hiding it in there."

"You're a genius, Nora!" Doctor Oobleck commended. "Alright, children, everybody at the top of the car."

We all quickly climbed above the train's car and opened the hatch and found a bomb there, confirming Nora's guess. I admit, while Nora was infamous for her being inhumanely insane, she does have some decent ideas and surprisingly possesses a good amount of knowledge on technology if she's not talking about weird crap she was taught from a machine cult at least.

"Well, there it is. How do we defuse it?" I hastily asked.

"We could pray to the machine spirit to convert it to our side." Ren proposed, making all of us—but Nora—stare at him in confusion. He stared back at us and went with an alternative. "Or you could cut the wire."

I examined the bomb closely and saw that it has three wires—two blue and one red. "Which wire?"

"I-It's usually the red wire." he answered unsurely. "And even then, it's not guaranteed to stop the bomb unless the other wires are cut in a particular order."

Well, shit.

"Hostiles up ahead!" Pyrrha pointed at our front, showing a wave of White Fang soldiers climbing above train and is approaching us.

"Well, I didn't expect them to go easy on us!" Doctor Oobleck remarked.

To make things worse, the bomb's screen began flashing red, indicating it's about to detonate. I decided that defusing this bomb was not worth it. "Forget it! Let's get out of here! Everyone to the next car! Ren, disconnect this car before the bomb blows up."

"Good call, Jaune!" Doctor Oobleck remarked as Ren nodded.

We all leaped to the next car. Ren went to down to the connectors to detach them. While they were detached, Ren apparently wasn't responsible for it. "It decoupled itself!" he said.

"What?" Doctor Oobleck exclaimed out of bewilderment.

"That takes care of that?" I ambivalently as I watched detached car distance itself before exploding.

"There's more of them!" Nora yelled as the Doctor and I quickly looked back and saw another bomb on the hatch.

"No, no, no!" the doctor said as he quickly went to the next car to find another bomb on its hatch. "They all have bombs!"

This day just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? By then, I wished that I was back to securing a Grimm-infested wasteland, even if it would take a whole day.

The car we were at also suddenly started detaching with the bomb on it about to detonate as well. With that, we quickly leaped to the next car.

"What do we do now?" Pyrrha asked as we turned back to Doctor Oobleck.

"We'll worry about the bombs later! Right now, we have hostiles on our twelve!" Doctor Oobleck said as the White Fang soldiers coming to approach us as from a few cars away.

I turned to the mob of White Fang soldiers I was about to face. Doing my best to restrain both my anxiety and motion sickness, I took up a confident face. "Alright team, you heard what he says. We just need to get rid of any White Fang troopers standing on our way. Remember, we're not fighting the Grimm, so don't give away your attacks." I said as I rallied them forward.

My teammates nodded and leaped toward the proceeding cars above the train. It felt a little nauseous moving around while the train was speeding, but it did not bother me that much since my motion sickness wasn't much of a concern because I had worse things to worry about. We shortly got near a mob of White Fang soldiers. "Get the humans!" One of them cried. We went to a formation with all of our weapons ready. Pyrrha still stayed at the front, she switched Milo to its spear mode and attached a wind dust crystal to create a powerful wave from a single horizontal slash that sent the terrorists on the front flying then falling off the train. Nora leaped in and smashed the top of the car, stunning the nearby hostiles as Ren charged and slashed all of them down. Pyrrha and I went to the next car to deal with another batch of White Fang members. Pyrrha charged in and dealt with the group while I stay back and provide covering fire while striking down anyone who has gotten next to me, kicking down even one of the terrorists off the train.

Once it was clear, I checked the hatch to see if there were still bombs just in case. Turns out there wasn't any, same goes for the previous car where the other three was at since Ren checked it himself. Well, at least we don't have to worry about those things blowing up anytime soon.  **[1]**

Speaking of which, we looked back and saw the last bomb-attached car explode. The explosion made a hole on the walls of the tunnel, giving Grimm an entrance.

"He's leading Grimm to the city!" Doctor Oobleck cried out.

"What?!" I exclaimed as I went to look at the tracks and found a horde of Grimm coming in a distance.

"It's the cars! They detach and explode, creating openings for the Grimm!" he reckoned.

"But why would they do that?!" I asked, puzzled at the White Fang's decision.

"I don't know but I do know this: Since this train leads to somewhere below Vale, it would crash into the barrier between this tunnel and Vale itself, giving Grimm an entrance to the city; if that happens history could potentially repeat itself! Only worse!" he explained as quickly as he could.

Everyone gasped except me. "What?" I asked, confused at what specific part of history he was referring to.

"Oh right, you weren't there." Doctor Oobleck said.

"W-W-Wait! You're telling me if we don't stop this train, the Grimm would be able to breach Vale?" I said, straightening things out.

"Precisely!" he replied. "You know how horrible that would be so there is no time to discuss this further! With the train carrying fewer cars, it now has less weight and more velocity, which means it has less time to reach the end of the tunnels! So we must hurry to the locomotive and stop this train at all cost!"

We hastily complied with the doctor's word, leaping from car to car on the effort to prevent a major terrorist attack from happening while I muse on how crazy the White Fang is for trying to go through this and mumbling on what I have gotten myself into.

Seriously, how is this going to promote equality somehow? What kind of psychedelic drug they took that made them do this? They really are batshit insane.

As we were getting closer to the locomotive, a stolen Atlesian Paladin leaped up at our front, putting all five of us to a halt. I find it pretty odd that they stored Paladins on this train when they intend to use it break inside Vale. It felt like a waste of good robots.  **[2]**

"Stand aside, children!" Doctor Oobleck stepped in and chugged his thermos before transforming back to a weapon and fired a single flare which was enough to knock the Paladin off the train before crashing to the ground then blowing up.

While these mechs were normally formidable, it wasn't a good idea to pilot something two-legged and heavy above a speeding train, which was why I was barely threatened with the following Paladin. A single sweep on its legs with Nora's hammer was enough to deal with it.

We continued to go off ahead when suddenly a White Fang member appeared out of a hatch. He was no ordinary member by the looks of it. He was large, muscular and he carried a chainblade; he wouldn't be out of place on a slasher film of sorts.

"I will destroy you." he said in a deep, menacing voice after making a sinister laugh. He swung around his chainsword as its saws revved.

However as scary this guy was, I didn't have time for showoffs. So I nodded to Pyrrha, prompting her to use her polarity to pull his weapon while he was still holding it. He was struggling to control his own chainsword, and his refusal to let go of it caused him to be pushed into falling off the train and become Grimm food or something. Good riddance.

"There's more of them coming from behind!" Nora pointed at our backs and saw more Paladins and White Fang members coming out, late for the party."

"Nora, come with me! We're going to hold them off." Doctor Oobleck ordered. "The rest of you, keep moving! If my calculations are accurate, the train is halfway its destination—so best for you to make haste!"

"You sure you'll be okay doctor?" Pyrrha asked.

"You can trust me on this one, Miss Nikos, this isn't my first rodeo. I'll be teaching these deviants a lesson." he nodded.

"Be careful out there, Nora." Ren regarded, displaying off his more emphatic side which rarely happens.

"You too, Ren!" Nora cheerfully said as she follows the doctor to charging.

"We better get moving," I told them. Pyrrha and Ren both nodded as they accompany me to the flatbed car containing a few Atlesian Paladins. I would have loved to take one of those bad boys home with me, but sadly I had to stay focused, especially that we were racing against the clock. Innocent lives were at stake and failing to stop this breach won't be good for my rep.

We went inside the train. There were few more cars remaining before we could reach the engine. We had our weapons ready as there won't be a single doubt that we would be facing Torchwick.

Speak of the devil.

After getting in one of the third last cars, the first thing we saw was a hatless Torchwick standing in the middle waiting for us.

Yeah, I'm not really used to seeing this guy without his hat. Looking at him without it always gives you an impression that there's something missing, especially with clothes like that.

"I'm gonna have to stop you right there, kiddos." he said. "These area is strictly off-limits to children. So why don't you all buzz off?"

I responded by firing a blast at him, which he dodged by making a hasty sidestep. That sucks because I wanted him shot and have this over with so we could focus on stopping a literal train-wreck from happening.

"I knew you were going to do that." he uttered before his tone becomes more infuriated. "You still owe me a hat, y'know? Do you even know how much that costs?! Bring it on!"

He pointed his cane at me and fired at a missile which was blocked by Pyrrha's shield when she went in front of me. Ren charged in and clashed both of his daggers with his cane. Pyrrha joined in and went to Torchwick's back and fought with his xiphos. Torchwick was noticeably having trouble dealing with two Huntsman back and forth, and it was a good opportunity to bypass him."

"You go on ahead, we'll handle him!" Pyrrha said as she parries all of Torchwick's attack.

I quickly ran to the door of the car. Torchwick noticeably tried to fire a missile at me before I closed the steel door, slightly feeling the missile detonate behind it.

I ran straight through the last cars before finally making my way to the locomotive as fast as I could, knowing we don't have a lot of time. Looking to the front window, I could visibly see the dead end from a couple of miles away. I quickly looked around the controls for a brake before spotting the lever.

I was overjoyed after seeing it that I immediately went toward it. As I was about to pull it, someone from behind began to choke me with an umbrella and I was pulled away from the train controls. I tried struggling my way out while an umbrella was pulling my throat. I reached for my pistol and began firing at my back, making the assailant dance around until they were forced to let me go.

I gasped for air as I looked up to see my attacker. Horrifyingly, it was none other than The Neapolitan Butcher herself. She blocked the train controls and wagged one of her index fingers.

I almost shat at the mere sight of her. There were a lot of things I wasn't looking forward to seeing, but she takes the cake. I swear, I would rather charge at an army of Atlesian Paladins head on with only a plastic spoon than to look at her eye-to-eye or even be in the same room.

Torchwick probably knew that he wasn't going to win this and was trying to hold off us for as long as he could. He only let me go because he knew that his pint-sized sidekick was waiting and I was too caught with the stuff that has been happening that I forgot she existed.

There was no turning back from this. I had to get rid of her as quick as I could and pull that brake before it was too late.

I holstered my pistol, raised up my shield and charged at her. She dodged to her right and pulled me with her umbrella's crook handle so I could stay away from the controls as she shifted in front of it again. I threw quick slashes at her, all of which she managed to dodge and repel. She pulled her blade from the umbrella and tried to stab me with it but I was able to block it in time.

She started fencing me with her blade, even occasionally trying to hit me with her umbrella sheath. I looked at the window behind her and saw that the dead-end was less than a kilometer away, prompting me to swing my sword around, desperately trying to hit her or at least get her out of the way.

She continued to parry my attacks before she began rapidly stabbing, pushing me back every time she hits my shield. Suddenly the door behind me opened and I heard Pyrrha call my name. With that, I stepped to my side as the Butcher was pulled to the last car when Pyrrha magnetized her weapon.

Without wasting another second, I moved toward the brake and pulled it as hard as I could. The rails began to squeal as the speeding train decelerates while its momentum pushes it to get near the wall within a half a mile. I quickly looked back and saw the Neapolitan Butcher widened her eyes as she looked into the window and suddenly disappear. Pyrrha and I watch the locomotive's window as it shows tunnel's end getting closer. I slowly walked back as the train increasingly slow down as it was reaching the wall within a few more yards. While the locomotive's very end touched the wall, the train fully stopped, with the barrier barely scathed.

I almost fainted as I caught my breath, panting heavily and wiping off my sweat, mumbling in disbelief that we actually made it. "W-We did it..."

Pyrrha later entered the locomotive and rushed to check on me, no longer was she engaging the Neapolitan Butcher as she suddenly just vanished. "Jaune! Are you okay?"

"Yeah… we made it…" I puffed, mustering words with my remaining strength. I felt nauseous after holding it off since I rode this train and because of all the adrenaline that pumped inside me. "I think I'm going to throw up."

I exited the locomotive and vomited near the rails. After being a student on Beacon for almost half a year, this may have been the wildest event I have experienced, putting every other adventure which I had the misfortune of being in to shame, and I was not happy about it. Still, it could have been much worse, which is why I was glad that it came to this instead.

Pyrrha and I headed back to the preceding cars while going around, searching for items, even breaking some crates in the process since I wasn't able to loot bodies on the rush. I found some ammunition and a few dust crystals, while they were underwhelming—they were good enough for me. At least I'm not leaving this mess empty handed.

Strangely and also amusingly, I also found a well-hidden stash of human porn on the caches; this is rich coming from a group that despises humans.  **[3]**  I suppose it's true that people tend to fetishize what they hate. I decided to take it when Pyrrha wasn't looking.

We reunited with Ren and saw Torchwick lying on the ground, cable-tied and handcuffed. I can already see that he ran out of aura. Good, at least he's not getting away this time. Pyrrha probably made sure of that.

Ren was leaning on the wall, panting. "Is it over?"

"Yep. There won't be any breaches at this hour." I asserted with a smirk.

"What a relief." he remarked after taking a deep breath, still panting off the excitement he had been having.

Torchwick just chuckled. "You only won the battle, kid, but not the war." he sneered before coughing. "You can't hold me like this forever! I've broken out of the joint before and I'll do it again!"

We decided to just ignore him, it's probably just ramblings of a defeated criminal after an operation he must have spent months of planning was botched.

Nora and Doctor Oobleck arrived a few minutes later. Both of them looked just as tired as us, which was saying a lot since these two are known for having energy that's off the charts.

"You guys did it!" Nora bounced to Ren and gave him a hug while still holding her hammer on its full form with only one her hands.

"We did it." I corrected Nora. Honestly, while I mostly said that because I thought it would make sense for me to say it, I doubt that I would have been able to reach the end of the train if it wasn't for everyone's help

"You sure right we did!" she chirped, letting go of Ren and pumped a fist.

"Outstanding work, children! Simply outstanding!" Doctor Oobleck congratulated. "I have accompanied students in my lengthy career for more times than I could count, but this is the easily the most remarkable one to date, which is especially more impressive when you consider that you are only freshmen on your first mission! So, I guess it is true that this generation of Huntsmen would be extraordinary." he looked over to Torchwick who stared at him back in disgust. "Not only that you were able to prevent a terrorist attack that would have resulted in a breach that would threaten the safety of the kingdom, but you managed to seize a major criminal that the authorities had been hunting for a long period of time.

"Good gods! Take a damn breath. Geez, Louise." Torchwick whined, shaking on the ground whilst still tied and cuffed. "This nerd here is your teacher? Holy crap, I can't imagine how you catch up with this guy. Now I remember why I dropped myself from school; teachers just don't know when to shut up."

Believe me, I know the feeling. But if there was someone who deserved to shut up, I'm pretty sure the answer is obvious and it's not the doctor himself.

"Fancy meeting you too, Roman Torchwick. Wanted for several accounts of armed robbery, racketeering, kidnapping, arms dealing, parole violation, possession of illegal items, hijacking, grand larceny, and more recently, associating with a known terrorist group." Doctor Oobleck replied.

"Why, I'm flattered with the recognition. Too bad I can't sign you an autograph when I'm tied like this." he scoffed.

"That wouldn't be a problem. I'll be more delighted in seeing you in a maximum security cell."

I looked around inside the train car and picked his cane after I found it. "Hey, don't touch that," Torchwick yelled.

Oh? Alright then, I'll just give it to Nora. I tossed it to her and when she caught it, gave a nod as she already knows what to do with it. She gripped it with both of her hands and bends it firmly until it snapped to two.

Torchwick's reaction was what you'd expect. With that, he had lost his smug demeanor. "Gods Damn You! This is some Grade-A bullshit! That was my sweet little baby!" he threw a temper tantrum on the floor. "Neo! Neo! Where is she?! What have you done to her?!"

Being reminded of his womanlet of a sidekick made me a little more cautious, knowing she's still likely alive and ambush us off-guard. But to my surprise, she thankfully didn't appear at all when I expected her to.

"Do you even know who you're up against?!" Torchwick continued to snarl. "I work with pretty dangerous people, White Knight. When you find out who they are, you'll be wishing you had stayed at home today. Mark my words!"

I faced away and took a few steps. The thing was, I already wished I stayed at home. And it's true that I have no idea who is even behind Torchwick, but I do at least know that he lost and I threw a wrench on his works and I couldn't be bothered to listen to him babble. While I was indeed terrified of whoever Torchwick is working for, these people could use a hint. As shameful it would be, I am the Hero of Podunk, after all; so maybe they should be reminded of that.

"Nora." I gripped my fists and turned to her, making her stand upright as she waited for her order. "Break. His. Legs."

For a second she paused, unsure if I was serious but then she made an affirmative smirk and readied her hammer. "With pleasure."

Torchwick froze in fear and prayed to himself that I'm bluffing. "You wouldn't!"

"No brakes on the pain train!" Nora said as she slowly walks to a tied and panicking Torchwick.

"I don't think I want to see this..." Pyrrha calmly, yet nervously remarked as she turns away for the impending violence.

"Trust me, you haven't seen the worst of her yet," Ren responded.

I looked away too; the thought was already terrifying enough that I'd rather not think about it on my sleep by witnessing it with my very own eyes. The sounds were no less haunting, with Torchwick screaming as his bones break while a large hammer thump. If this wasn't someone who committed numerous amounts of crimes and almost made Grimm leak to the city while giving liars and cheaters like me a bad name, it would have been a million times more uncomfortable.

"A rather ferocious move, but necessary to keep criminals like him in line, I'm afraid." Doctor Oobleck commented.

Nora was finished turning a crime lord to a cripple. With that, it was safe to turn around and look at him again. "That… was uncalled for! Arg!" he grunted, weakly shaking his upper body as his lower body remained numb.

"Like bombing the tunnels to summon Grimm trying to crash a train so they could get in the city?" I snidely retorted.

"Screw you, kid! My employers are going to kill you and they are dead serious about it."

"I looked forward to seeing them then. Your boss needed a message." I feigned confidence to give him an impression of the hard as balls hero I've been pretending to be since the beginning. I admit, it felt cathartic but I really hope his employers would just buzz off and realize that I'm not worth it. Really, they'll be doing both of us a favor.

"Yeah, tell 'em, Fearless Leader!" Nora cheered. "Whoever they are, we'll be ready for them!"

He groaned. "I knew working with those stupid fucking sheep wasn't worth the pay." I heard him mutter to himself."

"Alright, that's enough." Doctor Oobleck stepped in and took everyone's attention. "Now, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Grimm are still on the tunnels, and given the amount of negative energy within this train coming from the defeated opposition, they will arrive shortly."

Oh, crap we almost forgot. While they were a couple of miles away with the bodies for them to play with, which gave us time, there was still a massive horde that would overwhelm us and which we wouldn't be able to handle because we used almost all of our energy and resources on the previous battle.

"The good news, however, is that there's an emergency exit nearby that would lead us to Vale's sewers. After getting through that, we'll be home in no time."

"The sewers? Eww." Nora repulsively said.

"It would be worth getting through that if it means getting back to Beacon," Ren stated.

"I agree, after everything we've been put through, I'd say the stench of the sewers is the least of our concerns." Pyrrha chimed in

No objections. It was easier to smell shit for a short moment than hold a line against the Grimm in a long tunnel. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go home before the Grimm catches us."

Everyone went to get off the train. Nora carried Torchwick while he's still tied. We could already see the emergency exit from a few feet while hearing growls of incoming Grimm from the tunnels.

"At this point, I just want the Grimm to just kill us all already!" Torchwick yelled. I had a feeling that he is just going to keep talking until we put him out of his misery. Not a chance, he's going back to jail with broken legs and we're going to get paid for it, one way or the other. Just need to make the trip back to civilization a little more bearable. I wasn't going to have him throwing a fit in my whole way out here. I prefer that he saves it for the cops.

"Somebody, please shut him up," I demanded.

Nora complied and tapped his head, knocking him unconscious. There, now slightly less negative energy to feed off the Grimm.

Once we made it to the exit, it was pretty much over. Traveling through the sewers felt like a walk in the park compared to what we had to go through.

That was one hell of a first mission. I knew that a mission labeling itself of having moderate Grimm activity sounded too safe and easy to be true.

I really need to sleep; I haven't slept all night.

**=o=**

  1. _The White Fang was only able to make a few bombs since they weren't able to gather enough resources to make a sufficient amount, their previous failed robberies being one of the few factors. That is not even mentioning the bombs that were not able to be loaded due to Team JNPR's abrupt entrance._
  2. _They were supposed to be unloaded but due to Team JNPR's discovering one of their hideouts, Torchwick had to depart the train early._
  3. _Additionally, they are staunchly against interracial relationships, viewing them as much of an act of degeneracy the same way their human counterparts hate it._



* * *

"So let me get this straight: You subdued an entire White Fang subdivision, captured one of the kingdom's most wanted criminals and prevented a breach that would have costed hundreds of thousands of damages—all because they were blocking the exit?" the Great & Powerful Ozpin asked with his brow raised after I told him the whole thing. While he appears to believe it for the most part—he was having trouble being convinced that I was trying to escape and I thought that trying to stop the train was one way to do it, which it was, judging that I was able to make it back here.

"That pretty much sums all of that up," I answered.

It was seven hours after we arrived back to Vale. After going through the sewers, we left Torchwick to the nearest police patrol, and have him taken to the precinct while also reporting them the White Fang presence on the subway to Mountain Glenn. I'll expect the bounty reward soon. We took a Bullhead back to Beacon; all exhausted and stinking from the dirt we got during the fight and after making a trip through the sewers that everyone was staying at least ten feet away from us. Doctor Oobleck patted all of our backs and then we went back to our dorms. Each of us took a quick shower before plopping ourselves to bed for a well-deserved sleep.

After waking up at the start of the afternoon, we were all told to be summoned at Ozpin's office with Doctor Oobleck. He commended us for our work after hearing Doctor Oobleck's remarks of our performance. He then sends everyone off while telling me to stay so we could have another private chat about my recent exploit.

"If that's ever truly the case, then it's certainly astonishing to see what you'd do just so you could make your leave," Ozpin stated. "So far, you are the only person I have known that truly earned the right to brag about preventing an outbreak and having a wanted criminal apprehended on their first mission as a freshman—yet, you chose not to. Choosing to instead refer to your success as a result of sheer luck."

That and mostly because my teammates were there. Honestly, I shouldn't be getting most of the credit here, most of what I did was pull a brake. Granted, we were racing against the clock and it took some blood and sweat while we were on hell's railroad with the worst of the White Fang on board, but let's be honest, anyone could pull a brake.  **[1]**

"Professor... Please be honest with me." I said as I took a deep breath and inquired the question has been long been bugging me since yesterday. "Did you manipulate the mission board so I could pick that one particular mission?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny the possibility, Mr. Arc," he responded as he remained firm and still.

I begged to differ, there was no smoke without fire and all of the smoke seems to be coming from him. "Sounds like a 'yes' to me."

"And assuming that's even true, what would happen if I did not set the mission up for you? Do you think that things would have gone better?" he asked as he calmly retorted.

"Maybe. Maybe not. I mean, there's always Team RWBY." I pointed out. "I mean, we're not the only option you have."

"A welcome alternative if you ask me. However, I would have been skeptical considering that Team RWBY—while there's no denying that they are exceptionally skilled especially when they truly work together—they were too problematic to be trusted with something within this scale," he responded. "I prefer for them to take time and work on their internal affairs first."

"Is that why you picked me instead?" I narrowed my eyes slightly at him.

"You should look back and observe what you've managed to accomplish, Jaune. You just need to put some faith in yourself and you will understand," he said before he grabs to finish his mug. "Because regardless of what motivated you, a breach would have been a huge problem. It would hurt the kingdom economically with the potential damages, civilian casualties and lawsuits while it negatively impacts the upcoming festival as the civilians' safety is threatened."

"I guess you're right if you put it like that." I murmured. "But still, I did not appreciate going through all of that."

"Then be glad it resulted in this instead of your funeral. Like I mentioned previously, I would never send you on tasks I know you cannot accomplish and you were able to handle this efficiently." Ozpin asserted.

"Whatever," I said, rolling my own eyes. "Just let me celebrate for not dying in the suicide mission you sent me."

"As you wish, then. Just remember at what you managed to fulfill." he declared as he continues to stare at me stoically. "You now have my permission to leave. Thank you, Mr. Arc."

"You're welcome, Ozpin, the Great & Powerful," I said before turning away and leaving his office.

I took the elevator and descended back to the ground floor and exit the Beacon Tower and reunite with my team who was waiting for me on the courtyard. Team RWBY was also there and by the looks of it, they were surprised to hear about everything we went through this morning.

"Oh look, he's finally here!" Ruby pointed at me chirped. I noticed that she was wearing a backpack for some reason.

"Here he is, our knight and shining armor who made all of this possible!" Nora cheerfully gestured to me as I approached them"

"Is it true? Did you really got what Torchwick was coming to him?" Yang excitedly asked.

"Yeah. Let's just say you won't be hearing anything from him in a long while." I said.

"Serves that jerk right," Ruby remarked.

"Also, breaking his legs? I would do that myself but good to know that he'll be spending prison on a wheelchair." Yang said. Well, I guess there was no room for secrets now that they know about that.

"Yeah, we definitely showed them!" Nora chirped.

"Does anyone else know about this?" I asked hoping that they would say no but unfortunately…

"Uh, yeah. Word about it just spread recently." Ruby answered.

I just stared at her with a straight face while shouting a million cries internally that would have been so powerfully loud that I could make all the gods' ears bleed. This only guarantees that I would find myself in another scenario such as this. I don't know who started it, whether it was Doctor Oobleck, Ozpin or someone from my team, I'm definitely going to have less sleep these days.

"Hey, Jaune. You guys were at Quadrant 5, right?" Blake suddenly asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Have you, by any chance seen a bull faunus with a red sword?"

While what happened was a little blurry, I definitely haven't seen anyone with a red sword of sorts that is not Pyrrha's weapon. "No, I can't say I have."

"That figures," she said, slightly disappointed. "At least, Torchwick won't be causing trouble in a while. I doubt that this is the end for the White Fang though."

"Maybe not but this is a huge blow to them," I said to her. "Especially if you consider that this is what they've been trying to work on ever since they started robbing dust stores."

"From peacefully protesting to trying cause a breach," Blake muttered and asked rhetorically. "How low does the White Fang could get these days?"

"Regardless of how peaceful they were, they are now a shadow of their former selves." Pyrrha chimed in.

"It's for the best, Blake." Weiss put a hand on her shoulder before she hesitantly looks back at me. "Good work, Arc… that is all that I could say."

"Uhh, thanks," I said, not knowing what to make up of her rare compliments. I then realized something. "Wait, I've been thinking. I just realized that the mission we took doesn't actually have moderate Grimm activity, and you girls said that you've tried to take a Search & Destroy Mission but you couldn't because it wasn't available to students."

They all widened their eyes and glanced around in embarrassment before reluctantly admitting it. "Heh! Well, you got us." Ruby confessed. "We thought that we could use it to help Blake out to stop the White Fang but obviously we couldn't so we just with the other mission because it's on the same quadrant, we just have to wait it out."

"Well, good thing we were there to stop them ourselves then," I remarked.

"Yeah, it's pretty convenient," Yang commented. "Looks like we don't have to go snooping around the place for the hideout then."

"I'll have to disagree. We would still have to check to see if they were any remaining White Fang posts there. There might be some info that they weren't able to dispose of last morning." Blake said.

"Then it begs to ask, why were you able to get the mission when we couldn't? And why does it label itself to only saying that the Grimm activity there was moderate?" Weiss inquired to us with clear bewilderment and suspicion.

"Gee. I have no idea." I slightly glared back at the top of the tower.

Before we could discuss this further, a creature jumped out Ruby's backpack. It was a puppy—a corgi to be exact with black and white fur.

Sigh, dogs. I'd be happy to see one if it wasn't for my terrible history with them. I could still remember one biting me hard as a kid that I had to be sent to the hospital like it was yesterday.

"Zwei, I told you to stay in the bag!" Ruby told the dog. "You know we'll get in trouble if people here see you." Fortunately, the courtyard wasn't that populated. You'll get a few students passing through but that was it. It probably has something to do with most first-years being away for their mission.  **[2]**

"This is your dog?" Pyrrha asked as she looked at the dog chase its own tail and bark.

"Aww~ he's adorable!" Nora squealed as she leans at it.

"I thought Beacon doesn't allow pets. How did it get past security?" Ren inquired.

"Oh, Dad snuck him in via mail."  **[3]**  Yang answered.

Well, that and I remember Bleu telling me that Beacon has rather mediocre security.

"At least it's not a cat," Ren remarked, making a certain faunus to narrow her eyes at him, causing him to quickly apologize and rephrase his statement. "Sorry. I mean, I'm not particularly fond of four-legged felines myself."

"Look, Zwei, these are our friends from Team JNPR," Ruby said as she turned it toward us. "There's Ren, Nora, Pyrrha and their leader, Jaune!"

Zwei pants while it happily looks at my team until it turned toward me. I nervously took a step back as it stares at me for a couple of seconds before it started snarling and pounced to my feet then it started to biting off my pants.

"Zwei! Get off him!" Ruby rushes in as she pulled it away from my pants. "Bad dog! Say sorry to Jaune," she demanded.

Zwei whimpers at her before turning back to me and growled again.

"That's weird, I haven't seen Zwei act like that to other people before," Yang remarked, noticing how Zwei seems to dislike me for whatever reason.

"I think that animals just don't like me," I responded. Seriously, just go ask Vert and she'll be recounting all of the times when her pets attacked me.

"Why would they? You're such a nice guy," asked a puzzled Ruby.

It's maybe because it could sense me being a fraudulent bastard, I thought. "Beats me."

Nora's stomach growled. "Hey, guys, I'm hungry. Let's get to Vale and get ourselves something to eat."

"Sounds good. We could use it to celebrate our recent success." Pyrrha replied.

"Let's come with you!" Ruby suggested as she puts Zwei back to her backpack. "We still haven't got our lunch."

"We should go for tacos, it's Taco Tuesday, after all." Yang proposed before glancing at Weiss. "Weiss-cream here will be paying."

"Don't get too used to it, Yang," she responded as she narrowed her eyes to her.

"Tacos would be nice." I chimed in as I looked around everyone. "Alright, let's not dilly-dally around here any longer. My stomach is killing me."

So we all went to Vale with Team RWBY. It was one hell of a first mission we had and I was still recovering from that. I really hope that the mission just went wilder than expected and the following missions should be less complicated. At least, I won't have to worry about Torchwick and his White Fang slaves for a while.

Unfortunately, I think I might have pissed off his employers if they aren't trembling because I'm a fuckup to their operations. If they are not going to avoid me, then it's sure that they are now looking to teach me a lesson.

Way to go, Jaune.

**=o=**

  1. _While not exactly false, this is blatantly just another example of Jaune attempting to downplay his achievements to make himself look selfish and less-heroic. Remember that his leadership is what led to making his victory possible as I doubt that other people would be even able to reach the brake, considering what he had to face._
  2. _Although they began the operation early, the White Fang intended to start the breach during that week, when most of the Huntsmen were away doing their missions._
  3. _Speaking of which, Ruby did consider mailing all of us to Mountain Glenn when we realize that its mission was not available to first-years. I personally glad we didn't since we would have a lot of trouble breathing inside boxes._



* * *

_Editorial Note:_

_Once again, I am going to add an excerpt from the White Fang as they detail the aftermath of their failed operation, to give you an impression of the impact Team JNPR left on the organization that day._

_It should be noted that the author of the previous reports was killed in action during the train battle, it is unknown if his death was caused by the team or the Grimm. Regardless, this report was written by someone who stayed behind the Mountain Glenn base when the train left and managed to avoid being arrested when it was raided by the military._

The White Fang Reports: Trouble at Mountain Glenn 

Alright, where do I start?

Do you remember the operation what we been working on for months ever since Adam made a deal with some mysterious people?

Well, to put it lightly, it went to shit.

Sorry, if reading this sounded a little unprofessional to you, the guy who was supposed to write these things died that day. I'm in charge with these reports now and I'm much of a writer, so please bear with this for a moment; I'm still trying to get used to this.

Here is everything I could recall during that day.

The truth is that we actually had to make the train leave earlier than expected because The Valian Defanger came in and started fucking everything up that the train departed before we were done loading and unloading stuff. Hell, there were some bombs that we haven't been able to load inside it and we were still missing on bombs.

While we managed to blow up some holes on the tunnels for Grimm to enter, the train wasn't able to crash into Vale's barrier. No one was able to come back from the tunnels alive—even Lieutenant Fawkes has been confirmed dead. But somehow the Defanger and his followers managed to make it out with Torchwick captured.

The Grimm later ended up infesting our underground base at Mountain Glenn that we had to move out. VDF and Atlesian forces soon arrived and started shooting and arresting every White Fang member they see. I was one of the few that managed to escape to the woods and reach one of our outposts.

We later learned that Torchwick was now arrested by the Atlesians and was put on a death row for his crimes. I know that none of us liked that asshole anyway but everything we worked up for was all for nothing. Why are we even working with these stupid humies anyway, and what was the point of it? This was their idea, and we lost half of the division because of it.

Adam was just as furious as us but wants us to stay focused. Although this division is now crippled, we still haven't lost everything yet. There is still hope and we could build our way back, he told us to think of all the oppressed faunus we are fighting for.

Adam is someone all of us faunus look up to. I believed in him and I only hope that he is right that we will soon have our vengeance.

Update: We just found out that Torchwick's companion—The Neapolitan Butcher, or Neo, I think—has survived. I really don't know how she did it because none of our men came out of there alive and she wouldn't tell us because she won't say a thing. But we do know that she plans to break Torchwick out from prison somehow.

* * *

 


	10. The Phantom Grimace

_Editorial Note:_

_The following entry was written three weeks after Team JNPR's first mission. Team JNPR and RWBY were both making preparations for the imminent Vytal Festival, when all of a sudden, both Team JNPR and RWBY was called by Headmaster Ozpin for a special assignment._

* * *

  **Chapter 10**

**The Phantom Grimace**

* * *

 

> _"No one in their right mind wants to be oppressed, but everyone loves to think that they are."_
> 
> **_-Dennis Hartmann, Former Mantle Oligarch_ **

 

Some people say that they stopped believing in the Gods after losing their fate when miserable things still happened to them despite praying hard enough that they would go away, probably because of egocentric bullshit like 'Gods only exist if good things happen to me or if bad things happen to people I don't like,' or something like that as if They owe you everything. I, on the other hand, think that my misfortunes prove Their existence. Now, I'm no pious churchgoer; although I believed in omnipotent people watching somewhere from the depths of space since I was a child mostly thanks to my mother being religious and all, but my stroke of bad luck only proves that there are Gods watching me and that They have a very sick sense of humor. It's the only logical explanation on why I have been involved in the craziest nonsense recently when I've been doing my best not to get myself killed and that the only reason why They're not letting me die is that They won't be able to suck some entertainment out of me when I'm six feet under. So yeah, I believe the Gods exist—people just expected wrong things from Them.

I can't really blame Them, I kinda deserve all of this, well, except being treated and called as a hero, but then again They're aware that I didn't ask for this and still gave me my reputation anyway because They know it'll screw me over.

After the deranged, pants-shitting mess that was my first mission, the news began to report that Torchwick was incarcerated; an attempted breach was prevented from reaching the city, and an entire White Fang base was raided by the military. Then someone spat out some rumors that I was the one behind all of it. It wouldn't be so bad had not the Great & Powerful Ozpin decided to screw me over once again and confirm that my team and I was indeed responsible for all of those things, making my popularity go from ridiculous to ludicrous.

Word started spreading like a wildfire around the kingdom that it would have burnt down the entirety of Northern Sanus if it was an actual fire. I'm now being painted as a modern national hero, being the partner of the Invisible Girl of Mistral made it more or less worse that I wouldn't be surprised if they make us the couple of the year even though we haven't even officially dated yet.

Swarms of journalists and fangirls were all over me when showing myself to the public that I started to take a page from Pyrrha by wearing disguises and assume aliases every time I have to go to the city so I could prevent the godsdamn paparazzi from getting anything out of me.  **[1]**  I always hated those professional stalkers, journalists were always detective-wannabe pricks who make easy money by spouting their slanderous bullshit regardless of the context of what they're covering, but the paparazzi are an exceptional breed of journalist. Fucking degenerates, my private life is called 'private' for a reason. I mean, who the hell cares about the color of some famous person's underwear? A wise man once told me that there were no people on this planet that were more annoying than the media, and he couldn't have been more right about that.

I'm serious, my fame is getting out of control. I lost count on how many autographs I have to sign and how many girls fainted because I simply touched their hands. I had no choice but to accept this. The only thing I could do was be humble about it and try accrediting Ren and Nora for their roles. Sadly, they'll be only known as the duo who just happened to be teammates with Mr. Podunk and Ms. Mistral.

The worst part was despite all this, I haven't gotten laid yet. Where's my father's seductive charm when you need it?

I found out that White Fang recruitment dropped after that incident, thanks to fleeting morale, military raids on their bases, and the fact that they were scared shitless of me. Hopefully, the remnants would be taken down quickly so I don't have to cross paths with them anymore, I've had enough of those race-baiting militia dickheads.

My family called me and they told me that I was all over the news recently. They were pretty much proud that I am making the next steps as I carry the Arc family torch that I was too scared to let go and extinguish. Noir and Blanc said that they were even working on a tribute song about me for their concert this festival. Not really something I asked for, but they assured that they are not including my embarrassing childhood moments at the song, because as much as they like to joke about me as much as my other sisters, they wouldn't want that to ruin my dignity and image.

Anyway, I was having such a nice day, with my only concern was helping prepare for the Vytal Festival which was coming within less than a week. Culture clubs have opened for freshmen who are interested in certain hobbies and for additional festival activities. None of the clubs interested me so I obviously didn't join any of them. I have nothing to do but to train for the tournament while helping with the decorations once again. Although I was finished with community service a couple of weeks ago, everyone had a role to fulfill during preparation no matter how lazy or workaholic they were.

It wasn't much of a sweat, all we did was make props out of paper or cardboard, place decorations and arrange tables. I honestly wouldn't mind doing this until the preparations were complete, and I would have certainly chosen this over the mission if I had any idea that it was going to be another one that happened to be more trouble than it's worth.

It all started when Team JNPR and RWBY were taking our lunch breaks after a morning of training and organizing,  **[2]** when suddenly, The Great & Powerful Ozpin announced in the P.A. that he wants all the eight of us in his office. We had no idea why he specifically called us so we finished our lunch and then headed to his office at the Beacon Tower.

"Ah, good. You're all finally here." Ozpin turned away from the office's window as he faced all of us coming from the entrance, Miss Goodwitch was beside his desk, still carrying her tablet per the norm.

"Is there something you need from us, Professor Ozpin?" Ruby asked as we approach near his desk before he moved to sit on it. Underneath that curious expression, I could also feel that she's very excited to get involved in another daring adventure that would ruin the perfectly adequate peace we were having.

He better had a good reason on why he is calling for both of our teams because otherwise, Ozpin was better off only sending Team RWBY or get someone else to help them.

"I do, Ruby, and I very seldom call students to my office for a special assignment. Consider yourselves to be the fortunate few who had the privilege of being one."

Realistically, however, it's actually unfortunate to receive a special assignment from him. Not half a minute in and I was already shuddering with what Ozpin's been trying to allocate me with. I've been glancing at the office's door, thinking about bailing and launching myself out of the kingdom and to be never seen or heard from again.

Everyone looked at each other, befuddled in disbelief that Ozpin just abruptly sent us here for an unexpected task. Ruby meanwhile, squealed excitedly. "A special assignment?!"

"This is a bit sudden. Why choose us for this particular task, Professor?" Pyrrha questioned.

"I'm glad you asked, Miss Nikos," he replied. "Both of your teams have proven to be quite remarkable, not only among the freshmen but to the entirety of the school as well, surpassing even some of the most prodigious of your upperclassmen, that I noticed some of them being envious of you."

"It's what we do best, professor," Weiss proudly boasted.

"And a brave hero like Jaune made it possible for us to get on our spot!" Nora chirped, making some of them look at me with satisfied expressions as Yang bumped my shoulder.

I grinned back at them when in actuality I was doing my best to hide my embarresment and cringe. Attention like this was what I was trying to avoid as my increasing fame is becoming more turbulent by the second.

I stepped in and asked a question so we could get this over with and so I could sway everyone's attention away from my reputation. "What do you have for us, professor?"

"Before I brief you with this special task. I would like to inform you that this is at utmost importance and I am trusting both of your teams with it." Ozpin stated bluntly. "If you managed to handle it well, you will be exempted from this semester's exams as you have already proven to be suited for another year at Beacon that a written examination won't be necessary from you."

"Oh yeah! Now we're talkin'!" Yang pumped. "This will be a piece of cake."

One of these days, Yang is going to be the first to get herself killed or at the very least seriously wounded, I could feel it. Thank Gods she has a semblance that makes her a nightmare every time she's hit (and also gives her the ability to utter real swear words too.) Meanwhile, I still have to wait for Nora to get electrified or find a way to cast electric dust on her without being caught so she could use hers, even if it's quite clear that she idolizes me, I still don't want to her piss her off and break my bones.

"Sounds like I don't have to tutor you three then," Weiss commented. "Whatever this is, I'm up for it."

"You can count on us, Professor!" Ruby chirped.

"Good to hear, Team RWBY." Ozpin nodded to them before turning at me. "What about you, Jaune? What do you and your team have to say about this?"

All eyes moved toward me as they waited for my answer. While finishing a seemingly simple mission so I could automatically pass this semester's exam and finish this year without much of a hassle sounds like a win-win, something tells me that I should go on the trouble of studying for the exams instead. But I can't afford to refuse the offer in front of my own team and Team RWBY, it would leave a bad impression. So I guess I'll have to accept this, I just hope whatever I'm about to go through is worth it to pass this semester. Look at the bright side, at least I don't have to cram for nonsensical dust sciences that make algebra and geometry look like a kindergarten class and I get to rub it on everyone's faces. I could always rely on my team to carry me out on unwanted situations.

"We're up for it," I said confidently as I stepped up. "Whatever we need to do, I'm sure we could handle it. We didn't get here for nothing." I glanced at my teammates and saw Pyrrha and Ren giving expressions of approval while Nora was squealing excitedly.

"That's the spirit," Ozpin beamed. "Now, do you acknowledge that the information I'm about to provide you is confidential and that whatever is said in this room, stays in this room?"

We all silently nodded in agreement. Meanwhile, I was increasingly getting nervous when he makes it clear that this won't be an ordinary walk in the park. Was it really a good idea to accept this so I don't have to study?

"Splendid," he said before turning to Miss Goodwitch. "Glynda, if you will."

Miss Goodwitch complied silently as she tapped a few prompts on her tablet that folded the tower's window blinds, making the office almost completely dark until a blue light source came from a holographic screen on a wall, which all of our attention turned to.

Ozpin got up from his chair and stood next to the hologram as it displays an area map of the Emerald Forest with some landmarks crossed. "A few days ago, the security network at the Emerald Forests had mysteriously shut down."

Considering that it failed to stop a Nevermore and a Deathstalker from entering, I doubt it would have made much of a difference.

"I sent Professor Port along a few senior teams to investigate what was causing the disturbance. While they were able to successfully repair the security control centers back to working condition, they also made an interesting discovery." the hologram then displayed a photo of crates with a symbol of a hexagon with three bond lines at its angles and a stylized 'M' inside of it. The clearer image of the logo was displayed in a separate image.

"That insignia was the logo of Merlot Industries; a once proud research company before it collapsed after the fall of Mountain Glenn." he continued.

"I heard of that company before." Weiss uttered, "I remember my father going on meetings with them."

"Aren't they the ones who conducted experiments that were so unethical they made your family's company look tame in comparison?" Blake snidely asked.

Weiss narrowed her eyes at her. "Hey, I was young and naïve then! I didn't know much about them but I do recall my father being infuriated by them."

"Now settle down, we'll discuss the company in another time. But right now, this is important and I need you to stay focused." Ozpin intervened, calming down the monochrome duo. "Apparently, the devices that were used to disable the control centers and lured the Grimm bear this symbol, along with the crates, as you can see here. Now, it begs to ask, why are these objects carrying the logo of a now-defunct company? One would say that they were taken from their headquarters in Mountain Glenn. So I have requested General Ironwood to send some men there to investigate. Alas, this is what they found."

The holoscreen started playing a video footage of an Atlesian Soldier somewhere under Mountain Glenn. It was a little hard to watch as the camera was constantly shaking and that there were static everywhere. "This is Sergeant Wilhelm of Epsilon Squad. We're witnessing a type of Grimm that we've never seen before. We need backup as soon as—Oh Gods, help me!"

It was then followed by screaming with the camera turning to give us a very brief look at the creature that attacked them before it fell to the ground while it was tilted with small blood splattered on its lens. The redshirt's screaming continued as the Grimm growls. Once it stopped, the hind legs of the mysterious Grimm trudged through the camera as it lies there.

Ruby and Pyrrha covered their mouths at the footage while the others looked no less shocked. Miss Goodwitch halted the footage and rewinded it before pausing to the blurry frame of the Grimm that attacked them. It was blurry enough that we couldn't make up on what the Grimm was and what it exactly looked like. Its shape resembles that of an Alpha Beowolf, we would have left to that conclusion if we didn't notice something green glowing on its back, telling us that if this was an Alpha Beowolf, it was no ordinary one, which is very worrying you ask me since Alpha Grimm are already on terrifying on their own right, and the fact that it managed to wipe out a squad of technologically advanced trained soldiers made it more terrifying.

"What is that?!" Blake questioned with her eyes widened.

"I don't know…" Ruby leaned in and squinted her eyes. "It looks like an Alpha Beowolf—except there are green things on it."

"While it's very likely to be a Beowolf, we are not fully sure. All we know for certain is that the Grimm is apparently mutated as no normal Grimm bears green skeletons on its biology," Ozpin responded. "Two-thirds of the forces sent was later wiped out by an explosion from a bomb that was planted on the premises. Confirming that there was someone that is orchestrating all of this. We went to the conclusion that the person responsible for this was also behind the mutated Grimm and the security breach at Emerald Forest. Someone has been tampering with Merlot Industries resources and whoever this is must be stopped before they could cause further chaos."

Perfect, another kingdom-wide case, I muttered to myself. How the hell do I keep getting myself into these? "What do you think we'll have to do then?" I asked.

"Both of your teams will be deployed on Forever Falls. Grimm Activity has increased above the norm, and there have been sightings of anomalous Grimm on the area. We presume these to be the same mutated Grimm on Mountain Glenn. Your mission is to scout the area, eliminate any opposition and find anything that could be used to track down the perpetrator behind this."

"We won't let you down, sir." Ruby nodded followed by her teammates.

"You will be conducting this mission on your own. However, Doctor Oobleck will assist you via the school's communication network. He will watch over you as you carry out your task." Ozpin finished his mug of coffee and remotely unfolded the blinds, putting the light back at the office. "Good luck, students, and may the Gods watch over you," he said, turning off the screen and returning to his chair.

I'm sure They'll be watching, just don't expect Them to make things easier for us.

"A Bullhead will be waiting for you within ten minutes, use this time to prepare and arm yourselves. Stay safe and fight well. This is what you've trained for." Miss Goodwitch said as she went in front of the eight of us.

Without another word, we exited the tower and went to our respective dorms and lockers to gear up for the special assignment given to us.

"And I thought today will be relaxing." I heard Weiss murmur, sharing my thoughts exactly.

I guess I'll just have to do what I usually do then. Stay behind everyone, let them do most of the fighting, don't do anything stupid and I'll be fine. It's pretty much why I was even breathing today.

**=o=**

  1. _A common tactic used by politicians and celebrities to avoid public recognition. Success usually varies depending on how well the user handles the disguise and how recognizable the person is._   _I can confirm that I also use this method myself when traveling alone without bodyguards._
  2. _During the week before the festival, all regular lessons were temporarily put to a halt so students may spend time preparing for the festival, whether it be training, organizing or preparing activities with their respective clubs._



* * *

Ah, the Forever Falls woods, the magical place where I had been chased by rapier wasps and an Ursa Major, and also the place where I had to experience my love at first sight with the White Fang.

We were dropped off somewhere north of the forest after another nauseating flight that made one of the paper bags I bought come in handy. We split away from Team RWBY as we went around the area, searching for anything out of the ordinary while killing the Grimm along the waym as Doctor Oobleck act as our handler. They were right when they said that there were more Grimm in the forest than usual, and there's something that has been causing the sudden increase, and it was our mission to find out why.

With my rural upbringing, I should have little trouble trekking through the grassy greenlands—eer—redlands of Forever Falls, but the increased number of Grimm attacks prevented this from becoming an ordinary stroll. However, it wasn't really that bad since most of the packs were Creeps, which are one of the weaker Grimm. They're still pretty infuriating to handle on large packs, Creeps are known for digging to the ground and making holes everywhere. I have to constantly check my foot to see if they might come out of near it, at least Beowolves and Scavers know how to stand still even for a few seconds and make my life easier.

We kept searching for anything anomalous on the forest, while Nora whistles the tune of 'The Valian Grenadiers', which slightly lightened the mood but wasn't enough to make the Grimm any less aggressive.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really hoped that something interesting happens, because killing the same Grimm over and over gets annoyingly tiring real fast.

I pulled my sword from the Creep I slew from the last the Grimm horde we dispatched when Ren found a pavement leading to somewhere, it was tempting enough not to follow, these things don't lead to nothing.

"Let's follow this path. Maybe it could take us to wherever our culprit is hiding." I said to my teammates who agreed without a question.

"You guys find something?" Ruby's voice asked on our scroll's channel.

"Just a path that could lead us to our target. You?" I replied.

"Nothing yet. We're still trying to look for the train tracks from Mountain Glenn, it might give us any leads."

"Well, whatever you're doing. I wish you luck."

"You too," she said before a big pause then suddenly singing. " _I've been working on the railroad. All the live long day~._ Wait, is this thing still on?"

I chuckled and put the scroll back at my pocket. It sounds like Nora isn't the only singing a tune during a mission.

We found ourselves going uphill as we follow the path, we started noticing ruined stone columns appearing as we pass through them, indicating us that this was more or less the right path.

"We're heading somewhere, that's for sure," Ren commented. It should be, otherwise, it would be silly if they just paved way for something that leads to nowhere.

Once we finally went to the top, we saw that it stop at the cliff, however, the road continued below the edge while there was a tall and large tree standing on a stone stand on the middle of it. We dropped ourselves down and decided spent a quick break and take time to appreciate the large tree as we rest below the shade. A person with a dirty mind would say that whoever planted that tree is compensating for something.

"Wow..." Pyrrha stared at the tree, awestricken by its enormous size. "That tree is magnificent."

"It's so pretty!" Nora said before she took out her scroll. "Do we have time to take a picture?"

I looked around took time to admire the red forest. The scenery is actually pretty nice to look at. It would actually be a nice place to visit if it weren't for the Grimm lurking almost everywhere. Speaking of which, I saw another Beowolf pack approaching us.

"Pyrrha!" I turned to my team and issued the order.

She nodded as she tossed her javelin around the Beowolves while using her semblance to swing them around midair. Nora took care in hammering the others while Ren and I stay back and shoot.

Creeps started popping from the ground, ruining what was otherwise a beautiful scenery with their burrows. I swung my sword towards them, slicing them off one by one as I blast the others. Ren spun around the area, dispatching the other creeps by both shooting and stabbing at them.

Pyrrha was blocking a strike from an Alpha Beowolf's claw then swiftly rolled to its back before grabbing it and stabbing it until it falls dead and vanishes away.

The area was cleared for a few minutes before Pyrhha spotted more Grimm hurtling toward us. "More Creeps!"

Could these things just give up? I irritably thought I turned around and pointed my gun at them. To my surprise and horror, I saw that these Creeps were larger in every aspect and they glowed green while having spikes of the same color on their back. "Wait a minute. Those aren't ordinary Creeps."

"Green spikes! It's those mutated Grimm we were told about." Ren reloaded both of his pistols and aimed at them.

"Ho-hoo sounds fun." Nora gave a slasher smile and gripped her hammer. "Let's kill them then!"

Being Grimm that we never have seen before, they were rather unpredictable unlike most of the mindless Grimm we fought, along with the mutations that could make them do something who knows what which regular Grimm can't do. "Be careful, we don't know what these could do!" I warned them.

Pyrrha changed Milo to its rifle form and fired at one of them. With only two shots, the mutated Grimm exploded into green substance. Ren only took fewer bullets than usual to dispatch one and it exploded just like the ones Pyrrha killed.

"They die quicker than regular Creeps, but they blow up once they're dying." The coin dropped as I figured out what to do with this mutants. "Everyone, switch to range and keep your distance!"

We fired our weapons at the mutated Grimm, all of them erupting into green sludges almost effortlessly. A few more of them came out of their burrows as we rolled ourselves away from them before they exploded. I took out the last one with a single blast from my laser pistol. After that, the area was finally clear, with a few green liquid spluttered around the concrete pathway.

"I've seen plenty of Grimm on my life with varying shapes and sizes, but I've never seen anything like that," Ren remarked, which we could all say the same. We may be able to study different types of Grimm, regardless if they are common or rare, little or large, but these Grimm are different, as a result, we almost know nothing about them, it was fortunate that we managed to find out that Mutant Creeps explode by will or upon death, otherwise someone would have been seriously hurt if not dead.

I took some time to celebrate that we might be the first group to encounter these type of Grimm and live, which was relieving, if haunting, but otherwise I don't know how to feel about that.

"I know they look like Creeps but what kind of speshimen was that?" Nora asked, mispronouncing the word 'specimen'.

"I think it's pronounced 'spi-see-men', Nora," I replied except I think I was wrong about that because I put too much emphasis on the second syllable.

"'Spe-seh-men', actually." Ren corrected.

"Potato-Tomato, what exactly are those things?" Nora inquired.

"We don't exactly know for sure, let's just say their mutated Grimm like the ones we saw at the video during the briefing," I answered. "We need to notify Doctor Oobleck about this."

I took out my scroll and immediately heard the doctor's voice. "Team JNPR! Are you alright?! Grimm activity was detected around your area and your aura levels were on alert status."

"Yeah, we handled them, doc. We even came across some mutated Creeps which could be the ones from Mountain Glenn. We were lucky enough to have them dispatched almost unscathed."

"You did? Could you describe them for me then?"

"They're like the regular ones, only that they're bigger and they glow green. They die quicker but they make up for that by exploding when they die; they'll also blow up if they're too close to you." I explained.

"This is indeed concerning... those mutated Grimm that the poor soldiers found on Mountain Glenn were no fluke. This will require further study. It's fascinating... but very, very troubling. Excellent work, Team JNPR. Keep following those tracks, your encounter with them proves that you are going in the right direction. Be quickly now, the longer we pursue who is behind all of this, the more mutated Grimm that will spawn."

I shuddered at that last statement; I was hoping I'd never meet these green exploding assholes again, but unfortunately, this was only the beginning. By the way, I have yet to meet that mutated Beowolf-looking Grimm back at the briefing that managed to kill a whole squad of soldiers. If these are mutated Creeps, I cannot imagine what other mutated Grimm would be like, aside from the glowing and green spikes.

"You guys found the Grimm with the green thingies?" Ruby said at the other side of the channel.

"Yep. When you find them, whatever you do, don't get too close to them. Those things blow up when they die or when you get too close."

"That's a bummer, I wanted to punch whatever those things are head on." Yang made an aside.

"We'll remember that," Ruby responded. "We found the tunnels to Mountain Glenn; we're going in, wish us luck."

"Ditto," I muttered before putting my scroll down and turning back to my team. "Looks like this is the way, guys, if this it's not, then who knows where are these things coming from."

"We should be careful, I'm sure there would be plenty more of mutated Grimm we'll come across," Pyrrha added.

"Just remember what to do if you see it glow green," Ren stated.

"Don't worry, guys, we'll be poppin' those things before they could ever lay a claw on us." Nors bragged.

I sure hope so, I thought. "Right let's get back on track," I said as I lead them into following the path uphill, with all our guns ready in case more mutated Grimm come. I feel like this going to be a long journey.

* * *

We spent another few minutes treading the path uphill and there was a structure that was getting increasingly visible the more we got close to it. We later found an ancient stone building—a temple, if you will.

I made a subtle groan as I'm starting to get flashbacks of the initiation, at that point, I wouldn't be surprised if we found chess pieces inside that building and get chased by a Deathstalker or Nevermore or something. I went into thinking, if Creeps can get mutated, does that mean Deathstalkers and Nevermores could too? I hoped not and said to myself that I have to stop that maniac before he'll be able to make it possible.

"This must be the place," I said, momentarily gazing at its admittedly impressive architecture before pulling out my scroll to update the Doc. "Doctor Oobleck, we have arrived at the P.O.I.  **[1]** "

"Excellent. You know what to do now. I'm sure we are one step away into solving this mystery. Remember to remain cautious; we don't know what our mysterious adversary has in store for us, so expect the worst. Good luck, team."

"We shall take over this stronghold and I will declare myself the queen of the castle!" Nora said before cheerfully bouncing towards it as she sings her song.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" I glanced at my teammates as I check my ammo, in case more mutated Creeps come.

"Ready," Pyrrha replied as readied her rifle while Ren nodded with both of his SMGs raised.

Pyrrha and I faced the front of the large temple doors while Ren and Nora pushed them open. I stood behind Pyrrha while pointing my pistol as she crouched and aimed her rifle toward the door with her shield raised. Once the doors were opened, it was clear of any hostiles but there were some transparent cages of different Grimm—mostly Creeps and Scavers.

At the bright side, it didn't take that much trouble getting here; imagine the door being locked that we have searched the entire area, smashing pots like madmen to find a key, that would have been tediously annoying.

"Dr. Oobleck, this is no ordinary temple," Pyrrha said on her scroll as we carefully walked through the temple's hall while glancing at the trapped Grimm. One of them almost startled me when it tackled its cage right beside me that I almost would have shot the cage out of shock and accidentally free it. Hell, I noticed that most of them are staring at me, likely because I had the most negativity among the four.

"Look those wittle cweeps are trying to break out of their cages." Nora gestures to one of them. "Isn't it adorable?"

Please don't point at them, Nora. They hate it when you do that, I nervously thought.

"Someone's been busy collecting Grimm," Ren said.

"Which reminds me, I would have got one if you'd let me!" Nora yelled at him. "Now I'll never get my own Ursa and name it Jormungand!"

"For the last time, Nora. Grimm cannot be domesticated."  **[2]** he replied with slight irritation while maintaining his usual composure.

I never understood why some people want to tame Grimm and keep them as pets. I'm already having trouble with real animals, so why should I even bother handling Grimm that doesn't involve shooting or running away from them or both.

"You're just worried that you think I'm going to replace with you something. Don't worry, you'll always be my one and only Ren, but just let me have a pet for once! I promise you'll still be my number one!" she pleaded, in which Ren just rolled his eyes and kept on moving.

"It appears that this temple looks like it's being used as a temporary storage facility—for Grimm of all things!" Doctor Oobleck said through the scroll's channel. "This is quite the discovery. Keep searching, students. I'm positive that we are getting close to one of our objectives. Keep me notified if you find something particularly noteworthy."

I noticed there were a few supply crates scattered around the area, I quickly dashed toward them and took everything I could use. Most of them were useless junk, but there were some worth taking such as dust and tools that were used to capture Grimm, both which could be sold at a valuable price while coming in handy for a rainy day.

One of the random things I found was a black bishop chess piece that resembled one of the 'artifacts' we took during the initiation. I groaned for a bit. I was only joking when I thought that we might find chess pieces on the temple. Now I'm worried that a Nevermore is going to come over.

While chess pieces obviously don't automatically mean that it's tied to Ozpin, I couldn't help but ask just to be sure.

"Uh, doc? This doesn't belong to the headmaster now is it?" I queried as I showed the piece on the scroll's video feed.

The doctor answered with faint amusement. "Oh, fear not, Jaune, it's just a mere chess piece; nothing more, nothing less. Your days of searching those types of 'artifacts' are over. I'm not going to make you collect chess pieces throughout the mission, don't you worry."

"If you say so, Doc," I said before putting my scroll down. I don't know why I even bought it up, it's not like I wanted to go hunt for more stupid so-called 'artifacts' for a useless bonus.

I went around looking for more items to scavenge. Unfortunately, I got too caught up of looting the place that I did not notice a loose Grimm nearby; I thought the growling was just my stomach since I had a feeling that I didn't eat enough. It wasn't until I heard it roar loud enough that I turned around and saw it charging toward me that my reflexes got me to dive away from there just in time as I almost panicked. I got a good look and saw that the Beowolf was larger and mutated, resembling an Alpha, but like the mutated Creeps, they were glowing green and had green spikes on its back.

I screamed but I made it sound like more like a distress call instead of a pathetic shriek. Please tell me that you go down quicker like your smaller cousins, I silently begged as I took out my pistol and blasted it without thinking.

While there were some noticeable damages, it only got it to anger it and pounced right at me. I dodged to my left and collapsed my shield as it swung its claws to clobber me. I was able to deflect it but it was strong enough that it managed to push me back, which was something even Alpha Beos and Ursa Majors couldn't do even with their full strengths. The mutant Beo was no pushover and was proven to be stronger and quicker than its normal brethren, not to mention, their claws appear to be sharper.

"Guys!" I yelled for help as I did my best to avoid the Mutant Beo's attacks. I decided to run away from it while pointing my gun at it, looking like I'm still trying to fight it when I'm actually trying to make a retreat.

"Angry mutt! Angry mutt!" Nora shouted as she and the other two came out with ANOTHER mutated Beowolf, with Ren and Pyrrha trying shoot it down while they were at it.

"This one's worse than an Alpha Beo!" Pyrrha stated.

Two of them? Great. My problems just multiplied by two, just what I didn't need, I cursed to myself before turning back to the mutated Beo I previously fought.

While these abominations were tougher than any other Alpha-Grimm we had to face that I considered ditching this temple, they were still shown to be just as vulnerable as I could see them getting damaged after my teammates use their weapons against them. This meant we could still kill them if we hit them a lot enough, thankfully.

"Ren, Nora, you take care of that one, Pyrrha and I will handle this one!" I ordered.

"What are we supposed to do, then?" Ren inquired before backflipping away from the other mutant Beo's claw.

"Don't let it hit you, their attacks are much stronger than the regular ones that you die in a hit or two," I instructed as I dodged one of its attacks before I went close to it to bash its face. I slashed it a few times before it roars loudly that it was about to pounce me. It was distracted by Pyrrha's gunshots on its back, making it turn. I have her additional fire support by shooting on its back until it was stunned from the gunshots from both its front and back.

Pyrrha leaped toward it, kicked it as she made a backflip before throwing her javelin towards its head then pulled it back to her as she changed to its xiphos form. The two of us charged in and slashed the mutant Beowolf back and forth until it was finally finished off. Unlike the Mutated Creeps, this one doesn't explode, it just vanishes like any other Grimm, except that the same green substances drop away from its corpse, I'd say that's a good thing, these things are already enough trouble as they are.

Meanwhile, the other mutant Beo was trying to get near to Nora who was pushing it back by firing grenades at it, not aware of a tranquil Ren rushing towards its back before proceeding to stab it and slash its hind legs. It cried out in agony as it shoves away Ren, throwing him to a wall and Nora wasn't happy about that. It then proceeded to smash the ground, summoning a line of crystals coming to Nora on for her to leap off and changed her to hammer as she smashed the mutant Beowolf's head with it. She went to Ren and helped him up, the mutant Beo charged toward them only for Ren to hold one of Nora's hands and use his semblance to mask them both, making it lose sight of the two's negative energy. Ren proceeded to grab Nora's arm and threw her at the mutant Beo, she swung her hammer and smacked it at impact, sending it crashing to the other. Nora got out unharmed and finished it off with another thump.

"Holy moly, I just I killed a Grimm that's big and glowy!" Nora remarked with a mix of surprise and joy.

"Did you guys notice it bring spikes after it smashed the ground?" Ren turned to us and asked while panting for air. "That's not something a Grimm could normally do. Who and what's causing all these mutations?"

"No idea, but I'm very sure that anyone who would modify a Grimm to be stronger must have some pretty loose screws," I told them before bringing out my scroll to contact Oobleck of the latest discovery. "Doctor Oobleck? We may have found the mutated spi-see-men—"

"Spe-seh-men." Ren corrected. At this point, he might as well be our walking pronunciation guide.

I'm going to get that a lot until I managed to pronounce that correctly, am I not? "Whatever. We're here to confirm that the creature that attacked the soldiers on Mountain Glenn are really Mutant Beowolves."

"Mutated Beowolves, hm?" the doc pondered. "What can you tell me that makes these Mutated Beowolves deviate from the normal ones?"

"These things don't explode like Creeps. They're like Alpha Beowolves—only worse and they have this ability where they bring in green crystals after smashing the ground."

"I see. It appears that our fugitive seems to be making different experiments on each kind of Grimm. I'll inform Team RWBY of this. Keep searching—there must be some sort of lab somewhere if we are truly this close to uncovering the mystery."

"Roger." I nodded before putting the scroll back on my pocket.

We went around the temple looking for a lab or some sort of testing ground. So far, we managed to find nothing save for more storages of caged Grimm and some items which I took, of course, but we were able to find an exit somewhere at the back of the temple.

"Maybe we should head out there," Pyrrha suggested, pointing at the exit. "Might lead us to somewhere."

"I guess we already searched every nook and cranny of this place," I said. "Alright let's go."

We head out and followed the path from the exit. Shortly we found what seems to be a port, albeit apparently abandoned judging by the rusty textures of the containers if you look at them closely enough, along with a stationary crane. There was also a ship parked there that doesn't appear dilapidated but it possesses the logo of Merlot Industries despite the company being no more. Not only that, but few of the containers carry the insignia as well.

We stayed behind a rock that was overlooking the port on a slope. We can't risk going in there without being sure yet.

"A shipping port in Forever Fall?" Pyrrha asked in a puzzled tone. "Who else knows about this?"

"I see the ship with the same symbol as the cargo containers." Ren pointed out. "Someone was indeed using Merlot Industries' assets despite the company now being defunct."

"Doctor Oobleck…" I said at the scroll's channel after sending him some visual references, "Are you seeing this?"

"Is that a port?" he paused for a bit, undoubtedly taking time to study the photo I sent to him. "Judging by the condition of that ship, it doesn't appear to be abandoned from something belonging to a company that hasn't operated for a decade—meaning that somebody has been using it recently."

"Whoever this baddie is, just say the word and I'll give Torchwick a fellow cripple in prison!" Nora said to me.

"Remember whoever is behind all of this managed to break into Emerald Forest's security network and successfully mutated Grimm that killed several well-armed and well-trained soldiers, so you'll have to take some extra precautions." Doctor Oobleck advised. "Furthermore, Team RWBY is done investigating the subway tunnels and are now heading your way and will arrive within half an hour. I want you to stay put and watch over the port in the meantime. You might need some extra manpower for this task. Call me if you see something suspicious or if the ship is about to depart."

Staring at a cargo. Oh boy, here we go again. If I'm right about a pattern here, I could see what's going to come and that better not be the case. Luckily I'll have the joint forces of RWBY-JNPR should things go wrong, we might be even able to win without me doing anything.

**=o=**

  1. _Point of Interest._
  2. _Grimm can be collected for the purpose of research, or in some cases, such as Professor Port's classes, use them as live test subjects during training._



* * *

Around thirty minutes or so, we waited while watching over the docks. Nora was getting impatient with her trigger-finger twitching; Ren was keeping watch of the docks for anything anomalous; Pyrrha was blowing off steam and meditating so she could have enough aura to protect her while being able so she could use semblance more. Meanwhile, I was checking my inventory, examining at what I've looted as I decide which to use and which to sell. I could feel my skin shudder as I sense that something perilous is afoot.

Team RWBY arrived, aside from looking ragged and somewhat sweaty, for the most part, they look fine for people that have to explore a train tunnel and had likely encountered their fair share of mutated Grimm.

"We're here. What's this all about?" Ruby was the first to ask as the four of them approach us.

"There's a cargo belonging to Merlot Industries. We suspect that whoever we are going after, is using the defunct company's asset and they are likely to be very close." Pyrrha got up and answered, cocking the handle of her rifle.

"Notice that the ship bears the same logo." Ren pointed out. "If someone has been using the ship, then it must be the same person responsible for the security breach and the mutated Grimm."

Yang smirked. "Alright, let me at this guy. Whoever this chump is, they're going to pay for making the mutant Beo that sliced up my hair."

"Your hair looks the same." Nora of all people pointed out. Her hair was unkempt indeed, but it was always that way. Then again, this was Yang we are talking about.

"It's still a golden rule not to touch my totally gorgeous and perfect hair!" she said, her eyes briefly turning red before immediately cheering up and chucking. "Geddit?! Golden! Cause my…" Everyone turned to glare at her, even Ren who was focused on watching the docks. "I think you catch my drift."

"As much as I want this person to pay for the abominations they created, I'd prefer to have them arrested. They'll have to answer for what they've caused." Weiss chimed in.

"Can I still punch them in the face?" Yang asked.

Nora followed. "Or break their legs? "

"Just make sure they'll still be able to talk." she sighed. "I'm curious at what made someone would have the audacity to strengthen a Grimm when they're already enough of a threat."

Because they're freaking insane, that's what. "That's one of the things we're trying to find out," I said.

The doctor spoke through everyone's scrolls. "Alright, everyone. Now that you're all there, I'm going to need you to get a closer look to see what kind of cargo they're carrying. But be careful not to be spotted. Who knows what kind of security they have."

"Doesn't look hard," Yang commented. "At least after having to deal with exploding Creeps and things what I would like to call Double-Alpha Beowolves."

Checking the view again, I found getting the impression that the port was too suspiciously empty. If it does provide something significant on this mission, then it was too convenient to find it unoccupied. "Why do I get the feeling that it only looks that way so they could catch us off-guard?"

"So this is the port," Blake said and gazed at it. "Didn't know the Forever Falls had one."

"Looks abandoned," Ruby remarked, using her sniper's scope to survey the area.

"Probably because it is," Ren replied. "It looked like it hasn't been used since the company shut down."

Weiss scanned at the crates. Some containers were green and had the emblem of the Kingdom of Vale, others were Orange and had the Merlot Industries logo, but what got her attention was the blue crates with a very familiar logo. "Wait a minute, are those SDC crates?"

"Old SDC crates, I think," Blake replied. "They're about as rusty as the other crates on the pier, and I'm very certain that the SDC likes to pride itself with pristine containers."

Weiss glared at her, looking irritated by that statement, but ended up more or less concurring with her. "Well, you're not wrong."

"What's the plan?" Pyrrha turned to me and asked.

They all stared at me as they waited for the word of their resident hero. I made a brief glance at the dock before speaking, "Alright, Blake and Ren will go in first and scout the area to see if it's fully clear. Ruby and Pyrrha will stay here and provide sniper support, seeing as you're both marksmen. Everyone else including me will position ourselves before the entrance to the port until Ren and Blake say it's clear then we go in and find everything we need. Did you guys get all that?"

They all nodded and proceeded to cock their respective weapons. I was a little anxious that some unwanted repercussions might happen and that this might not work out right, but I was confident that it'll get the job done while keeping me out of harm's way. I gave them a smile as I ordered them to move out.

Ren and Blake entered the while everyone save for Ruby and Pyrrha followed and went behind cover near the dock's the entrance, all weapons—pistols, hammers, rapiers, and gauntlets—ready, while occasionally peeking out.

Blake reported the status of the area a couple of minutes later, "The place is clear. We checked the ship too, it seems that no one's on board. We haven't checked the containers yet, but so far, there's no sight of anything hostile."

"We found nothing on our sights either." Ruby added, "I guess you could say it's safe. We'll keep a lookout just in case."

"Alright then," I responded before glancing back to my other teammates, "Move out and check the cargo."

And so went in and spread out, opening every cargo to find something that could be the key to solving this mystery. Some containers contained cages, empty or otherwise. Others contain barrels of what appears to contain the serum that was probably used to mutate Grimm; we took some samples of it to bring back to Beacon for study. Most other containers just contain mundane things such as crates full of tools and parts, medical equipment, some minerals and a few crates of dusts—which were particularly stored in the SDC crates. I could make a fortune selling these as well as getting a significant supply of dust for us to use, so I took all that I could carry.

A few more containers opened, aside from the aforementioned barrels of green liquid, we haven't been able to find anything until Nora found something that caught her attention.

 

"Hey, look, machines!"

We went to Nora to check her discovery. It was a crate filled with red android-like thingies all inactive and sitting in a tucked position. I kept my laser pistol pointed at them in case these things turn on and start attacking us.

"I don't think I have ever seen this model of a machine before," Ren said.

"Could it be an invention of the person behind this?" Blake asked.

"Very likely. By the looks of it, these robots appear to be brand new and they must have been delivered here."

"If that's the case, then this person we're after, must have ties to Merlot Industries or at least had worked there before it collapsed, seeing as how they were capable of mutating Grimm and possessing these robots." Weiss chimed in.

The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to question with who we're after. We're either after a lone evil genius or a group of people planning something not good. If it's the latter, one could guess that they were ex-employees of the company or that maybe the company never actually shut-down. "I don't know, guys, but I think we're maybe after more than one person here. I couldn't grasp that one person could do all of this."

"You might be right," Blake replied. "We're very likely witnessing a scheme of an unethical organization that was able to gain access to resources for an unknown yet undoubtedly vile purpose."

"Well, that, or one person was really determined enough to do all of this," Weiss remarked.

"Either way, the question is—where is all of this coming from?" Ren pondered.

"We'll be sure to find out. If we could get into the ship's system, we could trace the route to back to where it came from." Blake proposed.

"I have experiences with tech, I'll be sure to examine once we're done checking every cargo," he assured.

"Speaking of which, we need to get back to securing this place," I said. "Someone will have to guard the robots though."

Blake nodded and went back to survey the docks while everyone else stayed to examine the robots for another minute. Yang suddenly stepped in and went in front of the dormant robots and waved at them. "Ohayou, Mr. Roboto! Can you and your pals please wake up so you can make this mission less boring for me?"

Weiss glared at her. "Are you really trying to provoke them just so you could satisfy your need for adrenaline?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood," Yang responded. "Besides, I doubt these tin cans could stand a chance against me."

"Should I break them before they awaken? These things posses heretical A.I." Nora asked.

"Just watch over them in the meantime. There might be something worth salvaging here, then you can destroy these unholy abominations." Ren answered before leaving.

"Whatever, I'll have my EMPs ready." Nora rotated her launcher's chamber. Good to know she bought those just in case, I've been worried about fighting robots at one point. I knew Nora's fear of robots would end up becoming useful at some point.

Everyone returned to their respective activities. I went back to whatever I was doing—taking all of the dust I could get. Unfortunately, I wasn't being considerate nor conspicuous when doing it around others, so Weiss found me looting from an SDC container.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked suspiciously.

I looked back to her and answered, slightly nervously. "Uh, scavenging for supplies," I answered somewhat nervously.

"Are you? Because it looks to me that you are stealing—from my family's company no less!"

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure your family lost this by the time this port was abandoned. The SDC must have already replaced this cargo a long time ago." I calmly defended.

"It does not change the fact that they're still Schnee Dust Company assets, and by stealing them, you are stealing from the company, and to some extent—ME!" she retorted.

She was becoming increasingly infuriating to deal with that I dropped the nice guy charade. I admit, I actually found her aggravation of me to be quite refreshing after receiving a whole lot of blind praise these past months, but I've enduring her attitude since the day one that I pretty much had it with her stuck-up, spoiled-rotten attitude.

"We're in a fairly capitalist society, princess. Someone bought this cargo a long time ago, and once someone buys it, it's no longer yours, simple as that. I thought you already know this, seeing as you're the company's heiress. Now I see why the headmaster never chose you as leader of your team." I sardonically replied as I went back to taking all the dust I could get my hands on.

Yang passed through and patted her short teammate's head. "Oh~, he got ya' there Ice Queen. He has his moments but who knew Vomit-Boy could be such a smart-alec?"

You have no idea. Aside from rare moments such as this where I don't have the patience to hide it, I'll keep it that way so everyone could still keep seeing me as a nice dorky guy they thought me as.

"He does this sometimes, you'll get used to it," Nora said to Weiss as she went near Weiss her.

"And you're okay with this?!" Weiss exclaimed at her before turning back and stomped toward me. "Desperately taking someone's bike to get to somewhere quickly was one thing but this is just outright thievery!"

For the Gods' sake, she's still being adamant about this. It makes me almost glad that Pyrrha was never partnered with her during the initiation, with her wishes of 'popular girls being at each other's backs' getting ruined.

"Weiss, you practically live in dust, this should be nothing to you. This doesn't belong to the SDC anymore. Finders, keepers. Now, please go bother someone else." I said as I finished gathering the dusts and went inside the next container.

I sliced the crates open and took everything I could carry while being careful enough not trigger any of them. Unsurprisingly enough, Weiss followed me, still being as stubborn as ever.

"I'm not stopping!"

I sighed in annoyance. "Seriously?"

"I demand you to hand me over the dusts you've taken, and take back what you said there, or else I would never forgive you for this!"

I rolled my eyes. At that point, I decided that this was not worth the trouble I would be facing. "If I only do the former, then would you shut up?"

"Just give them to me and maybe I'll be a little forgiving!"

"As little as your bust size?" I sarcastically asked.

Her face turns red in anger as she growled. "Now you're just being insufferable! Since when were you like this? I was content with you being a goof with a thick skull."

"Trust me, I'm still there. There are just a lot of things you don't know about me, Weiss-Queen," I answered. "Now can I at least keep a third of the dust I took or you're just going to be stingy? I promise I'll give you your crappy apology if I have to."

"You're not getting a single—!"

"AHHHHHHH!" Nora suddenly screamed, interrupting our heated moment.

We both tried to rush out of the container, only for an android to block the exit and suddenly shut the doors, trapping us both inside. We suddenly found ourselves collapsing to the ground as the container begins to be lifted. I tried to aim at the door to shoot it open with a laser blast but Weiss grabbed my pistol down before I was able to do so.

"Don't! Trying to fire an inside of an SDC container with your laser would only make it ricochet back to us and kill us both! You can't cut this container down without special equipment!" Weiss chided, her voice was echoing inside the container, which the same thing happened to me.

"Was it really necessary to make your containers extra tough?!"

"Yes! So it could prevent thefts!"  **[1]**

"Great, now it's preventing us to not get ourselves stolen!" I yelled now that we were trapped in there.

The ground and walls rumbled as we felt the container drop. I could hear gunshots, destruction and screaming outside, telling me there was a fight going. We got up and took out our scrolls to contact our teammates into getting us out.

"Ruby! Are you there?" Weiss called.

"Pyrrha! Ren! Nora! I'm at a container that's in the ship—I think!" I reported to them in my scroll.

Sadly, all we got was static. We did hear some transmissions from Doctor Oobleck from the others but they were all undecipherable; I was sure that they couldn't hear us either. We kept trying to contact to no avail until we were forced to accept that our network was disrupted.

"They've somehow jammed our communications!" Weiss exclaimed.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no!" I went to the side of the container and began banging the insides containers and screamed as loud as I could for help. "Guys! Help! We're trapped in here! Can you hear me?!"

"This can't be happening. This cannot be happening!" Weiss panicked back and forth and joined me in banging the container for distress.

But because of how loud the excitement was outside and they seemed to be too occupied into fighting those robots, I don't think they heard us nor were they aware that we were trapped in a container.

To make this nightmare worse, we could feel the ship set sail as the sounds of fighting became more distant the farther we get. We were officially screwed.

Needless to say, neither of us was very happy about that. "No! No! No! NO!" I began panicking as I kicked the wall of the container.

"I can't believe I'm getting involuntarily smuggled—with you of all people!" Weiss squawked.

I held the wall and the panted heavily. I noticed that I was already sweating and that I need to calm down and conserve my oxygen if I'm going to stay here for who knows how long.

"So…" I turned back to her to that she was folding her arms and was scowling at me. I was winced at her for a moment before attempting to smile and extenuate the situation…rather pathetically. "Maybe you can have the dusts now."

She winked at me before growling and punching my gut, something which my aura decided not to protect me from. I saw it coming and I still made no effort to dodge it, probably because I felt too guilty for being partly responsible for putting both of us in this mess that I allowed her to have it.

I fell to the ground and groaned in pain. "I deserve that…"

"This is all your fault! If you just decided not to be greedy or just listen for once, none of us would be even trapped in here!"

"And we wouldn't be if you just left me alone," I got up and retorted, suppressing the urge to slap an annoying heiress of a multibillion-lien company on the face, something I really wanted to do for a long time but I suppose the situation I was in was already heated enough—literally because it was pretty hot inside the box, with only little ventilation to barely provide enough air inside. "But does it really matter whose fault it is? We're both stuck in here. I'd say save your breath because you'll need it. Let's hope this would be a short trip."

Her narrowed eyes stared at me for a few seconds before she groaned and went to the other side of the container and faced the wall. I decided to lean back at the side and sit down. I stared at her back before looking up to the vent above me.

The worst part about this was I could sense my motion sickness acting out again. I did my best to hold it back so I could avoid making a puddle inside this claustrophobic hellhole and be stuck with it for minutes if not hours. This was not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to go sailing the other day.

If only I took a hint and not go overboard on my looting. I swear I would have instead challenged those machines for a battle of supremacy if it meant avoiding this.

I'm on a boat… and I hate it. Where the hell is this ship heading to, anyway?

**=o=**

  1. _And to keep slave laborers—particularly faunus—loaded inside, admittedly. Back then, we would occasionally transport faunus prisoners and some laborers by putting them inside the containers. Thanks to faunus getting access to equal rights and the company reforming, this practice has been banned and discontinued._



* * *

I've been staring at my scroll's clock and it's been forty minutes since we've been trapped here and being stowed to Gods know where. We've been trying to contact the others, but all we got was static due to the signal being almost nonexistent. Occasionally, if we're very lucky, we would sometimes receive a brief transmission and even hear them albeit they were inaudible due to them being obscured by the loud and rampant static.

The container has been dark, damp and hot, with the only light source coming from a small vent as light glares from. I had a hard time breathing; if it wasn't for the vent, we would have suffocated by now. I'm instantly reminded of the time Cardin and his goons locked me up on my own locker last semester, so this wasn't the first time I've been trapped inside a steel cage with limited ventilation. Hopefully, this would be the last—and not for the fatally wrong reason.

Weiss was still on the other corner, sitting and looking down. We've been silent to each other ever since this ship started to sail. The only time we made contact was an occasional stare until one of us decides to look away.

I wiped away my sweat, breathing heavily out of dehydration. I was becoming desperate enough that I considered biting off one of the ice dusts for water—but even I know that ice dusts don't work that way. Come to think of it, I could cast an ice dust and suck the water from it, but I decided not to risk it.  **[1]**

Suddenly, Weiss stood and went toward me. She offered me a half-empty water canteen that has her family's emblem on it. While I can feel that she's still pissed at me, she doesn't seem to be in a mood for more bickering, "Here. It's not much but it'll last you longer."

I was in a state of shock, denial, and disbelief, but I was happy that she decided to put aside her vexation of me and do this. "That's awfully generous of you. Thanks." I took the canteen, drank it and found myself refreshed.

"Don't mention it. I only did what I thought was the right thing to do, even if it's for an unbearable dunce like you," she said, sitting down next to me as I handed back her canteen.

I smiled at her smugly. "I see that being with someone like Ruby has helped you endure dumb idiots like me."

She gave me a dirty look. "And I'm starting to suspect that you're not actually an idiot at all. You're probably just a wise-mouthed jerk who likes to pretend that he's one."

Well, crap. I pretty much lost all my patience with her at that point that I began to blurt out and blew a part of my cover. Shouldn't have been much of a smartass. I still wasn't in the mood of playing nice and dumb, so I might as well keep being myself then, "Could be. Your mileage may vary, after all. Are you implying that I'm smarter than I look?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I know you made yourself a leader and a decent tactician, but that doesn't stop you for being a dimwit—even if you just happen to be some caustic buffoon all along."

"Aren't I already ridiculous?"

She growled, "You said it yourself then," she remarked before pausing for a moment and then speaking in a cordial tone in contrast to the cold nature of hers that I was used to. "You know, I haven't properly thanked you yet."

"For what?"

"For getting Neptune to dance with me during that night. I was surprised he suddenly asked me out after he shot me down. He said I have you to thank since you were the one that talked him to get the courage to partake in a dance with me."

"Oh, that was nothing. He just needed a little encouragement, that's all," I replied. I don't think I deserved that much of a praise. I've only done what any decent human being would have done at the time, and even then, I believe her other friends would have done a better job than I did.  **[2]**

"Don't be too modest. I wouldn't have danced with anybody that night if it wasn't for you," she said before slightly blushing. "You know, you could've danced with me if you wanted to."

I chuckled in disbelief, finding the concept of Weiss accepting an idiot like me to be ridiculous. I have never done anything that truly makes me worthy of her. While Neptune can be somewhat over his head sometimes, at least he has good looks to make up for it. "Somehow, I doubt it."

"I think you're doubting yourself too much. I mean, how bad can it be?"

It won't be that bad, I think, but it'll be worse than what she's thinking. "Would you still accept me if I asked you out after rejecting me multiple times while I end up looking like a creep that some people refuse to live it down?"

She stared at me confusedly. "Please, Jaune, that just sounds incredibly ludicrous."

"Because it is," I stated. Thankfully I wasn't that much of an idiot and at least I know how to take a hint. "By the way, how are you and Neptune doing so far?"

"We're getting along. You could say we're dating, but we haven't made much progress."

Better than nothing, I suppose. I'm just going to leave it at that. I only helped Neptune out that night because I only felt bad for Weiss, but now she's his responsibility, and he should be aware of that. So whatever happens to this relationship is none of my concern. "I'm just glad you two have settled."

"Thank you, I really appreciate it," she smiled at me warmly "I still haven't forgiven you for abandoning me with the records the other day though."

"Yeah, sorry. I had some questions I wanted some answers from Penny. Otherwise, I would have stayed and helped you out." Which in hindsight, I wish I did, because the decision to follow Penny eventually got into the White Fang's bank robbery. If I just stayed with Weiss and examine boring records, I would have accompanied her to Torchwick's highway rampage with the Paladin and I didn't have to steal a bike and go to the wrong way, eventually making my ignominious reputation worse.

"At least you stopped a White Fang robbery because of it," she replied.

"My thoughts exactly." I puffed, concealing my frustration with that turn of events, that was the same misfortune that bought both of us here. I turned back to her, "Tell you what, when we get out of this, maybe I could invite you for cake and tea when we get home to make up for our rocky relationship."

"Are you being serious?" she asked. I shrugged and left the answer ambiguous, which earned me a slight glare from her. "Whatever. I'll consider it then. You're not a bad guy, Jaune, you're just really strange. I think it would be a good idea to know you better; that way, maybe I'll understand why people even like you so much."

I flashed her a smile, "I look forward to it, then."

Weiss stayed silently on my side for a few more minutes, only this time, she wasn't aloof ice queen she was, which was comforting since I kind of missed her amiable demeanor she displayed during the night after our first day of class and I kinda like seeing her being nice.

We suddenly felt the ship went to a halt as we heard the engine stopped. This alerted both of us as we both stood and readied our weapons. We both kept still and quiet to listen for any sudden movements since we can't be sure if whoever going to open this container is hostile or a friendly unarmed civilian but seeing as we're essentially being kidnapped, the former was to be expected.

Those robots made a mistake of letting us keeping our weapons, surrounded by loads of dust on the floor.

We later heard stomping approaching the cargo. Listening to it carefully, we confirmed that the sound was metallic, telling us that it one of those robots. If they aren't going to try to disarm us and take us prisoner, they will be sure to kill us.

"They're coming, get ready," Weiss said as went to her combat stance.

Pointing my pistol at the exit, preparing for one of the robots to open up and show up, I looked at the dusts crates and felt the coin drop. "Grab a few dusts, I have an idea."

She turned to me and looked skeptical but quickly complied. "I'm trusting you with this."

We took some dust crystal and carefully placed them near the door. Now, I know that I'm not the brightest guy when it came to dust use, but even I know that we should only use a small amount because one too much would get us killed while having too few won't make much of an impact. Once we're done we rushed back to the other side.

"Stay behind me, wait until I say go," I instructed. She nodded and went behind my back with her weapon drawn as she waits for my signal.

I took out my sword and placed it on the ground since there wasn't a place where I could put it when I'm holding both my shield and gun. I raised my shield and pointed my gun at the door.

The footsteps were becoming more audible before we heard the container's door about to be open. I readied my trigger finger as I focus at the door and the dusts placed at the floor near it.

"Ready?" I asked Weiss, I did not turn to see what her answer was, but I was sure that she's ready. The door finally opened as the robot showed itself with its eyes glowing red.  **[3]** "Now!"

We wasted no time to fire our respective weapons toward the small litter of dust crystals near the entrance. As I planned, it created an explosion, slightly pushing back the container and the both of us while I block incoming projectiles on my shield—and to some extent—the impact of the explosion. While I fell to Weiss, she doesn't appear injured, and neither was I thanks to our auras, she does look a bit irritated but it was the least of her problems at the moment.

It seemed to have done the trick. The first thing I saw after getting up was seeing pieces of the robots scattered on the ground. I collapsed my shield and placed it back at my belt before picking up my sword from the ground. We ran out, embracing the fresh air with my breath as I vow never to take oxygen for granted ever again.

We saw that we were at a platform on a ship, which was docked ashore in an unknown location. The place can be described as a deserted island with some traces of an industry. I assumed that the structures here belonged to Merlot Industries. The island wasn't a tropical paradise—the color scheme was dull, there were no palm trees and the weather was lackluster. Not really a place you'd like to go on vacation.

There were four more robots in the ships. They were almost humanoid and carried double-bladed polearms as their weapons. While Weiss handled the other side of killer robots, I charged toward the other two, rolling from one of their swings before I fired my laspistol on its back. The other robot attempted to swing its weapon vertically towards me, but I managed to block it with my sword, while doing so, I blasted its chest with my laser pistol before slicing its head off. Once I was done with the first tin can, the other turned around. I shot its head and then shot its torso twice. The robot fell headless with a chest full of holes like Helvetican cheese.

Apparently, energy weaponry is effective not only to organics but to machines as well. I really love this gun; taking it from some White Fang rando was the best decision I've ever made.

I turned to Weiss, who was surrounded by dismantled robot parts after pulling her rapier from a metal body. We looked around our surroundings and saw that there were no more robots on the ship approaching, so it was safe to say that it was clear for now.

"Where are we?" she asked after glancing around the area for any clue of our location.

"I don't know, but we're about to find out," I answered.

Weiss pulled out her scroll to check her communications, we were still only getting static. "Unbelievable. Still nothing."

"I see a radio tower just up ahead," I said, pointing toward it on the island. "Maybe we could use it to transmit to Beacon's signal. Let's be careful, I don't like the look of this place."

"Well, let's go with that then! I don't have any better ideas at the moment." Weiss responded. "Since we're in a desperate situation—I'm letting you take some of the dust. We're going to need everything at our disposal."

I grinned at her for accepting me to take dusts, it really had to take getting kidnapped for her to finally allow me to do that. "Now you're talking." But sadly, if I'm to be realistic by this, most of the dusts I took would have been used on the way of escaping this island, so it was still for nothing, I would have rather not touched them if I knew that it would lead me to this.

"Don't get too with comfortable with my generosity, Arc," Weiss warned. "I still find your 'scavenging' to be objectionable."

"Whatever, Schnee. Let's focus on getting out of this." I replied. She rolled her eyes at my remark but she complied and chose to continue our verbal sparring for later.

Before unboarding, we roamed around the ship to check if it's clear. We went to the bridge, armed to the teeth and ready to engage with anyone, only to find out that it was empty. We discovered that no one was piloting the ship and it was being controlled remotely.

There were a few file drawers nearby so I went to check to see if there was something I should know, however, I found nothing that intrigued me aside from a sticky note that is written as 'Lusus Naturae',  **[4]**  I assumed there was something important with that and not just some random writing so I took it just in case.

It was then we decided that there's nothing for us here and set foot on the island's shore, we proceeded to head toward the visible tower not far from where we were at.

**=o=**

  1. _It's actually possible to manipulate a dust crystal into using a bare minimum of its element, with some precision and carefulness required, but due to Jaune's limited knowledge on dust use, he was not aware of that._
  2. _I doubt it since Neptune wasn't exactly the greatest communicator with the opposite sex outside of flirting. Additionally, if Yang was the one that attempted to persuade him, she would just threaten him which would have made his decision ingenuine and forced._
  3. _Jaune is misremembering details here, the Androids' eyes and lines actually glow blue. Though, to be fair, because of the hostile nature of machines—it's easy to mistake that they glow red, an alarming color. Though, the gunner androids do have red lights._
  4. _Translates to 'Freak of Nature' in Old Imperial._



* * *

It wasn't even five minutes into the island yet, but it was already made clear that I was right about it being a dreary, solitary dryland with some buildings that indicated that there was an establishment here. Also since it was around five in the afternoon, the sky was getting darker, which ended up making the island's atmosphere a whole lot worse. Notably, this made both of us be extra vigilant, as the people who established a base here may possibly be the ones responsible for all the chaos that led to us here.

However, so far on our way to the communications tower, we haven't found anyone yet. The first place we stumbled upon after exiting the shore was a warehouse. The place looks abandoned, with nothing but tumbleweeds passing by. There were symbols of the Merlot Industries logo placed almost everywhere, confirming that this place used to belong to them and that our target(s) may have ties to the company prior, otherwise there was nothing else that could explain why they have access to this company's resources and use it against us.

I was tempted to go raid the warehouse stashes for supplies, but Weiss kept giving me suspicious looks that I decided not to do it to prevent more annoying time wasting arguments from Beacon's resident Ice Queen. While there wasn't a single soul to be found as of yet, this place wasn't free from Grimm. Shortly after we visited the warehouse a few Creeps and Scavers and a couple of Boarbatusks popped out. I wasn't surprised—in fact, I was wondering when they will show up considering that our target was experimenting them, not to mention any abandoned establishment is guaranteed to have Grimm at one point or another.

Despite only being the two of us with little cohesion, we didn't have much trouble dealing them since we trained hard enough for the past months that we were sure to handle an entire pack alone. While Huntsmen work better on teams, they are still expected to have the ability to take care of themselves individually and take on a number of Grimm without back up.

Which was why I thought I was screwed if I didn't have a magical regal-looking, dust-spamming, ice skating, fencer of an heiress with me. Aside from that, I stabbed one of the Boarbatusks on its ass before I could confirm its kill, I've only managed to kill a handful of the other weaker Grimm, which is nothing impressive, as it's just Huntsman standard. Weiss meanwhile managed to slay several of them at the same time, thanks to her Glyphs and large damage impact of the dusts she uses.

It's a good thing we bought a lot of dusts. After we were done with the Grimm, she is allowing me to scavenge as long as we are taking necessary supplies such as dusts and ammo, she'll be fine with it, which I was actually pretty happy to hear about.

Moving on, we went straight to the communications tower after we were done checking the warehouse. Thankfully, there weren't any further obstacles when we were going up the tower, unfortunately, we discovered yet another obstacle that hinders us from escaping this island.

"Oh, great." Weiss muttered after attempting to access the tower's terminal, "Its password protected."

I thought we were both doomed as there barely have an alternative and neither two of us have any experience in hacking, that was before I felt the coin drop and remembered the piece of paper I picked up back at the ship. "Hold on,"

Weiss stepped aside as I took over the terminal and typed in 'Lusus Naturae,' and it worked, much to my joy and surprise. While my looting tendency arguably put both of us to this mess, it also going to help us get out too.

I've wasted no more time connecting the tower's signal to our scroll's channel, the only thing we had to do was wait a few minutes for it to reach Beacon's signal, hopefully, quick enough before the opposing force discovers us. If I was desperate and have gone crazy enough, I would have prayed to the machine spirit just so it could work faster.

"And now we wait." I faced towards Weiss and turned away from the screen which says 'Transmitting Signal' with a progress bar under it.

"At least we're making progress," she said rather unenthusiastically, her face was still as flat as her breasts  **[1]** , which was still preferable than her nagging at me as if she was the less patient version of my mom.

The process took a little while, both of us went on the lookout in the meantime, but there all we got was ambient silence, even when I briefly scouted the area with some caution, there weren't any Grimm nor robots, so I guessed it was a good time to relax for a bit that we ended up sitting it out, but this only made me more worried as it felt too peaceful and empty that it was suspicious. Something surely was lurking around the area waiting to strike. A place like this can't be fully peaceful.

After five minutes passed, I checked the screen and saw the progress bar was half finished, meaning all we had to do was wait for five more minutes. I gritted my teeth and trembled for as I continued to wait while my Huntsman senses keep telling that something sinister is afoot which was why I was holding my pistol for the whole duration.

"So, how's Pyrrha?" Weiss sudden question startled me for a bit while I was on the lookout for something potentially dangerous, but I was able to settle down and respond.

"Why ask that all of a sudden?"

"I'm just curious how she's holding up in your team."

I was still hesitant into giver her an answer. Even if we're starting to get along, I'm still not sure to trust her that much. For all I know, she might be just looking for a topic to gossip about. "There must be a reason for your curiosity."

She rolled her eyes, "Just answer the question. Do you really want to make this harder for the both of us?"

I groaned and decided to spit it out. It was a harmless question and I didn't want to vex her again, it was best for her to keep her composure and I didn't need any more of her whining especially if I'm going to be stuck with her for a while.

"She's doing fine. She's comfortable enough and she's glad she's with us. She wouldn't have it any other way." I answered. It was straight to the point and it didn't provide any specific information while it satisfied Weiss' curiosity, so it was rather a win-win.

"There, that's all I wanted to hear. Simple is it?" she dryly said.

"Yeah. Aside from that, she's obsessed with making everything tidy." I added. I kid you not, aside from giving her performance anxiety, Pyrrha's winning streak kind of turned her into a neat-freak and made her a borderline perfectionist. Thankfully she's only like that to her own stuff, otherwise I would have gotten insane.

She stares at me for a bit, "That sounds… incredibly like her," she remarked.

"But she's mostly fine, you'll just have to keep the dorm neat and you'll have nothing to worry about." I said before taking my turn to ask the questions, "What about you? How are you holding up in your team?"

"They're… pretty okay."

"How's so?"

"They can be very troublesome sometimes, but they're my teammates, and we have to look out for each other even if they do like to test my patience. Overtime I began to appreciate for what they are despite our problems together."

Sounds like me and my sisters, no wonder I was able to handle everyone's antics. It's a good thing they have someone like me to balance things out. "I see."

"You know you people aren't actually bad. It just takes getting used being in a rather crazy circle of friends."

"Glad you're getting along with us then." I remarked, "You know, you're actually pretty likable when you're being nice. Why can't you act more like it? Did Vale's warm weather increased your temper or something?"

"It's because all of you like to get in my nerves. If you people would only make yourselves more bearable I would have been nicer." she defensively replied and crossed her arms, "And please tell me Jaune. Are you really like this? Because I really don't get you, it's like you're a different person from whom I met the first day."

Godsdammit, this better not be the last day where I'll be recognized as a friendly dork who happens to be one of the most popular students in the academy. It was going well ever since my attempt to pretend to be a beta who was somehow qualified for Beacon failed miserably. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, and now you're playing dumb. This is exactly what I'm trying to point out!"

I sighed. Unless she miraculously forgets all of this, I really done screwed up. I sincerely hope that she's assuming that I was just in a bad mood and not find out that my public personality was all just a façade because I was careless enough to lose control of myself and acted too out of character. "Look. It's not as simple as it sounds. Why don't you just go with the notion that people are not one-dimensional?"

Weiss just groaned and continues to stare at me with her piercing glares of those ice cold blue eyes. I just stared at her back because I had nothing else on my mind that isn't 'explain that my behavior when someone was around was bullshit and have it end up becoming Beacon's number one gossip and ruin my rep.'

Despite that, it's a good thing we had this conversation, it at least made time go quicker that it should almost be done by now so I could get out of the staring contest that followed.

While we're at it, I suddenly noticed something odd on the landscape on her back. I squinted my eyes and scrutinized at the object and immediately recognized it as another one of those hostile robots. I did not hesitate to aim my pistol and shoot it down in front her face, startling Weiss into turning back and saw the wave of robots approaching us.

"Couldn't you have warned me?!" she pulled out her rapier and went to her combat stance as she rotated her dust chamber.

"We'll argue later!" I said, aiming at one of those robots then firing at its chest, filling it with blast holes.

As much as I hate it every time something's trying to kill me and ruins the peace, this pretty much saved me from getting Weiss from fully cracking the code, at that point they were less threatening than something that would ruin my reputation that I despise yet still ensure to avoid a fate worse than death.

"How much longer?!" Weiss asked, casting an ice dust on two of those walking tin cans that were a foot of each other, causing them to be frozen and break in the process.

Blasting another robot's head clean off, I ran to the terminal and checked the screen, "Almost there, just hold on for a couple of minutes!"

The two of us held the ground and continued to clear the area of the robots whilst preventing them from ruining the transmission. Thanks to the laser pistol and amount of dusts we were carrying, we had little trouble of getting rid of them since these robots were apparently vulnerable to energy weapons and the right use of dusts. The only thing I had to worry about was managing our ammunition and supplies.

One of the last of the robots tried sweeping the floor, only for me to jump from it and I thrust the Crocea Mors to its head, impaling its face. Weiss meanwhile finished hers of by crushing it with her glyphs, squashing them into pulverized pieces of flattened scraps. By this point, the signal was successfully transmitted and the are was clear making it safe for us to contact Beacon.

I wasted no more time to reconnect ourselves back to Doctor Oobleck's channel and notify him of our status and location.

"Hello? Come in. Mr. Arc? Miss Schnee? Is that you?" the doc asked, the transmission were initially full of static but it quickly became clearer.

"It's really us, Doctor," I responded. "Look, we don't have much time to explain all I could say we were shipped into an unknown island and there's plenty of Grimm and those robot things here. Luckily we managed to find a communications tower and used it to receive your signal. I request rescue as soon as possible."

"Well, it's good to hear from you again, it would be a huge blow for us if we lose both of you. Worry not, we'll do our very best to track your location as quickly and efficiently as possible," he said, which was very reassuring. Suddenly a mysterious transmission was suddenly heard from the channel and it wasn't from anyone we're familiar with. "Hold, on I'm receiving feedback from an unknown frequency! Who is this? Identify yourself!"

An unfamiliar voice responded on the frequency. "Ah, that's better. Sorry, but the reception is always so bad all the way out here. I hope you're enjoying your stay on the island. You're the first visitors I've had in, well, you are the first."

"That…voice." Doctor Oobleck muttered, apparently being familiar with the mysterious caller.

"Doctor Oobleck, who is this?" Weiss inquired concernedly on her scroll. I was no less puzzled or disturbed.

"Oh, where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself. My name's Dr. Merlot. You don't know me, but I most certainly know who you are. Nevertheless, I'm thrilled you're here. You might be exactly what I need for a very important... experiment."

"Wait…" While I already had a hint of who he was the moment he said his name, I still glanced at the company's sign at the nearest building which has his name on it just to be sure. "Dr. Merlot? As in this Merlot Industries Merlot?!"

"Of course I am the Dr. Merlot. What else am I going to name my own company that I spent years building up after?" he replied. I don't know, something more corporate-sounding name that involves enrichment, I guess?

"I thought you died with your company!" Weiss said to him.

He chuckled sinisterly. "Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated," he remarked, it appears that even not-dead scientists aren't above clichéd phrases stolen from bad action novels. Go figure. "And it was a mere speed bump on the superhighway of scientific progress. You couldn't possibly imagine the ramifications of my latest research. For such terrific students as yourselves, this should be an easy test, right?"

"So we meet again, Doctor Merlot." Another voice coming from the doctor's (well, our doctor's) comm said, only except it wasn't Doctor Oobleck who spoke but Ozpin himself.

"Ozpin? Or shall I call you Oz like old times, chum?" the evil doctor responded. Weiss and I were shocked, but I wasn't that much surprised considering how Ozpin knows everyone and everyone knows Ozpin at this point. Besides, these shady old men being familiar with each other doesn't sound far-fetched.

"You should have perished in the Mountain Glenn disaster, a tragedy you played no small part in. The world was a much safer place without you."

It looks like I know who to blame for what Mountain Glenn is now, and it made me more desperate to get out of here because if he really is behind the fall of Mountain Glenn then it meant he could do the same to this island and I didn't want to get caught by it.

"You're calling me the reckless one? Sending your students out on an excursion like this?" Merlot retorted. I'd say he's spot on if he wasn't making the Great & Powerful Ozpin look sane more likable by creating mutated Grimm and adding more problems in a world that are already dominated by monsters for whatever senile reason, not to mention, being responsible for Mountain Glenn's destruction if Ozpin is to be believed.

"They're more than a match for your mindless robots," Ozpin argued, it's nice for him to speak for us but I'll be the judge of that. "What you're doing here is wrong, Merlot."

"Trying to make the world a better place is wrong? Say what you will about me, it won't change the fact that you're powerless to stop me."

I fail to see how making a more horrifying version of the leading problem of this would make it a better place. Thousands of these Grimm die every day yet they still keep on growing and outnumbering us and you expect us to think that this will somehow improve the planet's condition?

"You'll botch this somehow. You always do." Ozpin replied.

"Well, let's agree to disagree. I tell you Oz, it has been truly a pleasure catching up, but unfortunately, it's time for me to run. Farewell, old chum."

I was so befuddled that I was prompted to ask Ozpin of the situation, but Weiss beat me to it. "What's going on professor?!"

I could hear him sigh from his side of the channel. "Mr. Arc, Miss Schnee. While we're able to get your transmission, I'm afraid we still haven't got your location. Merlot is using some sort of firewall that it would take some time for us and pinpoint his island and send you out of there. Stay put. In the meantime, search the premises for information about Merlot's current scheme so the authorities would be able to review them before he destroys them. Rescue and backup should arrive shortly after we're able to breach Merlot's firewall."

Explore the islands and check the facility which undoubtedly contains mutated Grimm and advance security measures? I would rather torture myself with school lectures and study for the finals instead by now. "Please hurry," I told them while keeping a stiff upper lip and trying not to sound like I was pleading.

"We're doing everything we can, Jaune. Just hold on. You will make it through this." Ozpin responded before ending the call.

Weiss and I turned to each other. "You heard him. No point trying to stay on this spot. There's no doubt that they'll just keep sending waves of robots until they know that we're dead. Might as well uncover more of this case." I said.

"I trust that you know what you're doing. Pyrrha can't consider you to be an effective leader for nothing." she said, "So lead the way."

I really can't promise that though, but I have no intentions of dying here so she could count on me on that one. She proceeded to accompany me out of the tower and into the facility.

Pursuing an evil scientist in an isolated island, which was only missing an active volcano—I feel like I'm in a bad superhero comic right now. Nothing is ever simple, is it?

**=o=**

  1. _Hey!_



* * *

The deeper we went, the more disturbing the island was appearing as the sky was growing darker. On the path to Merlot's lab, we found pipes harvesting something from the island's surface as well puddles which is very likely the same substance that was carried by the mutated Grimm.

"Ugh, look at this place. What is Merlot doing here?" I said to Weiss as we were overlooking the area on a slope.

"A refinery, by the looks of it," she answered. "It appears they're gathering the substance that was used to create the mutated Grimm back at Forever Fall."

"So you're telling me that this island contains the stuff that mutated the Grimm. Have you by any chance, heard or studied about this stuff before?"

"Not really, but I suspect that it's one of the rare substances found on certain specific areas on Remnant, this island being one of them."

"Great," I muttered. We were in a disadvantage then. I was fine with this being another indistinct, boring island that just happens to have a corporate establishment, it turned out to be rich in the same liquid that made the world's living nightmares twice as worse, guaranteeing that I will be facing quite a lot of them. I was praying that I would only encounter those one-shot exploding mutant Creeps and not much else, or maybe I should shut up because it's giving my omnipotent tormentors some ideas and make them do the opposite of what I'm begging for.

Looking back at the area, there were puddles of the green liquid on the ground while there were a few Grimm lurking around and some of them are approaching the puddles. "You think those puddles contain the mutagen?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure. For all we know, it might be just regular acid or something else. This is a research facility after all. Let's wait and see." Weiss responded, "You should be aware that Mutant Creeps are less bothersome than they look, especially within this distance."

She got that right. Thank goodness for that because I'll be able to save ammo if I were to shoot fragile, two-legged suicide bombers from afar while it satisfies our curiosity, otherwise if it was a Beowolf or a higher-tier Grimm we would be doing our best to keep them away from those.

One of the Creeps went near the puddle and drank of it. Seconds later, I witness it go through its somewhat disturbing transformation process. The Creep made a raucous cry as its eyes and mouth were filled with a green light. Its skin began slightly tearing, revealing a glowing layer. The other Creeps went in drank from a puddle, putting them in the same process. No green spikes yet and their skulls were still the same, probably because their mutations were still in early stages.  **[1]**

I was still rather perturbed but I immediately remained calm when I realized that it wasn't that bad and mutant Creeps were elementary compared to its cousins anyway. "I guess we have our answer," I said. It was already a minute after the Creeps started drinking from the puddle. They remained immobile during the transformation, so it was a good opportunity the get rid of them, whether they're fully transformed or not.

I fired my laser pistol at them, almost instantly erupting them into nothing but the same liquid they consumed from. I was careful enough not to hit the pipes, otherwise, they would leak the serum and it might even lure nearby Grimm while giving them free power-up drinks when there are already puddles of them all over the place.

Weiss followed suit and cast a few fireballs from her rapier, helping me clear out the area out of the remaining Creeps that were unable to retaliate due to being in the middle of their transformation.

Once we were done, we both lowered our weapons. "We should inform Professor Ozpin about this," Weiss said to me. Without any objections, she pulled out her scroll contacted Ozpin.

"Students, have you found something?"

"There appears to be equipment extracting the green serum that was used to create the mutated Grimm, and it's being pumped elsewhere."

"This is also said to be one of the few places that have this stuff," I added.

"This confirms my suspicions. I knew Merlot is on this island for a reason. Keep searching. I want you to follow the pipeline. With any luck, it will lead us right to Dr. Merlot. Try to slow down this sinister operation if you can. By the way, after a long and arduous process, we are finally able to pinpoint you're signal. Your fellow team members are en route to the island and should arrive as soon as possible."

Finally, some relieving news—I never thought I would hear one again. "Will do, just don't take too long," I responded before putting my scroll back to my pocket.

Leaping off from the short edge. We began trailing the pipes to where it was coming from and sabotage anything that would make progress of an evil scientist's twisted plan just so I could complete my mission, letting me pass this year while skipping all of the bullshit studying and sleep peacefully at night knowing that there would be no superpowered Grimm to worry about.

The main facility became visible and we were getting close to it the further we followed the pipeline. On our way, we received a transmission from a friendly voice. "Hello~, can anyone hear me? Weiss? Jaune?"

"Ruby!" Weiss happily exclaimed at the voice the would normally annoy her, and me to some extent, as if my sisters weren't able to train me into handling hyperactive girls like her. "I can't believe I'm saying this—but it's good to hear from you again!"

"Good to hear you that you're okay, Weiss! Is Jaune taking care of you?"

I felt my cheeks heat up momentarily while Weiss' turned pink and did her best to hide it. She tried to scowl at me to sway any thoughts, but if you ask me, she ended up looking rather adorable when attempting to glare at me while embarrassed, it kind of reminds why I even had a short crush on her when I first looked at her in the eyes—if only her looks match her personality. "Well, he is a tolerable companion—to say the least."

"Umm, what she just said," I replied, enforcing the awkward atmosphere further.

"Are you trying to make Pyrrha jealous, Weiss-cream?" someone said on the line, anyone who's familiar with my friends can already guess who said this because of the way she speaks, so I don't find it necessary for me to tell you who said that.

If you somehow weren't able to recognize this person's by their way of speaking because you may have presumably skipped to this chapter or is just bad at indicating someone through their personality, then let Pyrrha's embarrassed stuttering help you out. "Y-Yang!"

"You stay away from him, Weissy-Dicey!" Nora yelled on her end. "You're not good enough for someone as honorable and caring as Jaune!"

I wouldn't say that I'm above her in terms of morality though. At worse, she's probably in the same league as mine, and even then I still think she's more of a saint compared to I am. At least she's being honest of who she is.

"Does it look like I want to be stuck here with him?" Weiss retorted, yelling at the scroll in front of her.

Ditto, Frosty Flakes. "Don't worry about me, Nora," I told her. That wasn't really a good advice, if anything, they should be worried because their leader is in a grave situation. "This is not the first time where I have to fend for myself remember?" And hopefully, it wouldn't be the last either.

"We know, Jaune. We just couldn't imagine what must be going through right now." Pyrrha responded, and boy, was she right about that one. "The Bullhead we're in to get there just recently launched; we're going as fast as we can so we should be there in just a few minutes!"

"Look, just hurry on there. I am getting increasingly sweaty, tired and dirty and I refuse to die in this state and inside this nightmare of an island!"

"Don't worry, we're coming! Just keep on doing on what you're doing. You're doing great from what I've heard." Ruby said.

That put me in a better mood, but I almost forgot that Merlot was still on the same channel as ours. I was beginning to worry that he might be listening. And unfortunately, he was. "Might I remind you that I can hear everything that is being said on this channel?"

"Gah! Who's this?!" Ruby shrieked.

"You must be the baddie who's behind all this!" Yang said. "You better not have harmed our friends!"

He chuckled evilly. "I wished I have already done more than that. Your friends are more stubborn than I anticipated but I should have expected it from the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and a nominee of Vale's Junior Huntsman of The Year."

Oh, come on! Not this again. A mad scientist like you who have been stuck on this island and doing questionable experiments for more than a decade should have been the last person to be in touch of dumb phenomenons such as my misunderstood exploits. I didn't bear any ill-feelings toward this guy despite being a delusional prick whose creations could screw up an already doomed world but after he mentioned that I'll be more than glad to give him an idea what it's like having an ancestral sword on your stomach or what a blast of laser on your face feels like.

"I can remember the other professors at Beacon saying the same thing about you, Merlot, though the word they chose was less kind."

I'm almost thinking the same, except it's involving a little more profanity.

"Ever since you got it in your head that experimenting on Grimm was a good idea," Ozpin once again came in to talk to a former colleague of his. "Your obsession has and will continue to be your downfall."

"The Grimm are a superior species, fascinating in their biology, their unbridled, raw aggression and lack of sentience make them the perfect vessel."

Grimm supremacy, are you fucking kidding me?! Even the White Fang have better justifications and this is a group where most of their target demographic wouldn't buy their shit.

"That line of thought illustrates exactly why you could never be trusted, Merlot." For once, I see something eye-to-eye with the Great & Powerful Ozpin. "I still find it amazing that you survived the disaster in Mountain Glenn, Merlot. Was it sheer luck or part of your master plan?"

"Would you believe me if I told you it wasn't my fault?"

"I believe that you wouldn't take accountability for your actions."

"Admittedly, Mountain Glenn is a bit of a sore spot for me. Decades of hard work, countless research projects, not to mention all of the specimen I'd collected over the year… all lost without a trace."

"Let me get this straight... you're upset that you lost your research?" Ozpin presumed.

"The work done at Merlot Industries was critical in the advancement of artificial intelligence and genetics. Without it, Remnant would still be in the dark ages."

And now, you're making something that would send Remnant back to the dark ages. How ironic, but then again, he's making it pretty obvious that he lacks self-awareness.

"You've missed the point. An entire city was laid to waste. Countless lives were lost. My only question is how much of the damage were you personally responsible for?!"

"Well, how else was I supposed to conduct my research? Our supply of test subjects was running thin."

"And when the Grimm came back, the city's population was driven underground where it was safe. No thanks to Merlot Industries."

"Do you believe things happen for a reason, Oz? I mean, two of your little prodigies practically washed ashore here on my island, and it appears that you are sending more of them."

"I'm not sure what you're getting at," Ozpin responded sternly before turning to us. "Carry on, Mr. Arc and Miss Schnee. As for the others, make yourselves prepared. Merlot is not the type of individual that goes easy on us. Remember your training and expect heavy resistance."

Good thing I have been expecting the worse since the beginning then.

After trailing the pipes for a few minutes, we were able to find what was presumably the laboratory building where all of his operations are being conducted, much to our joy after everything we've done to get this far.

There was a catwalk that was being directed towards its entrance of the main facility. We began to move hastily, but we remained prudent, knowing that there was always a threat around every corner. Doctor Merlot liked keeping his establishments secured and he wasn't going to let us inside that easily.

Of course there were security robots waiting for us because on this island, there has to be an obstacle to something as simple as trying to enter a freaking building, otherwise where would be the fun in that? But for anyone who has read my ramblings for long enough, it's already made crystal-clear that I hate certain types of 'fun' and I'm doing my best to avoid them as humanly possible.

I grabbed my pistol and hastily fired at the robots, within less than five shots I've already dispatched at least three of them. Weiss used her glyphs to put the other robots in close proximity then used electric dust to overcharge all of them at once, next thing I know is that some of them simply shut down and fell while the others exploded. I sliced down the ones which were still whole so we could be sure that they're never coming back unless Merlot gets a chance to glue them back to working condition, an opportunity that we're not willing to give.

"If Merlot is going to torment us on this wretched island. He could at least give us a worthy challenge than sending the same pieces of walking scrap-metal he keeps throwing at us."

Please don't give him any ideas, I irritably thought.

When we thought the area was clear and it was safe to press forward, two more robots appeared. These weren't the regular models we fought before, they were painted white and were much larger, enforced by their bulkier appearance. They appear to use Gatling guns rather than the polearms the red androids use.

You just had to say it, didn't you, Ice Queen?

Widening my eyes, I quickly expanded my shield, prompting Weiss to get behind me when we both noticed their guns rotating and firing seconds after.

I blocked the robot's barrage of bullets while moving to the nearest container for cover with Weiss hunkering down behind me. When we got to the container, we waited for them to stop firing. They presumably cannot shoot forever since they would either run out of ammo or their guns would overheat, thankfully the durability of the SDC's containers was used in our favor for once.

Once they stopped firing, I hastily tried to tear them down with my laspistol the same way I tore down the army of robots that tried to kill me previously, but to my dismay—these models apparently have reinforced armor that is able to counter laser fire. While laser pistol is pretty good against both organics and synthetics alike, shields and aura be damned, there are still some things that it cannot penetrate against.

"Dammit," I murmured, reloading my laspistol's clip after using most of it in an attempt to dispatch the Heavy Gunner Androids.

Weiss made her move and tried to use the same trick she did to overload the robots' circuits. It was just as ineffective as it did almost no effect to the robots and they kept moving slowly.

"Well, there's the 'worthy challenge' you wanted. Happy now?!" I yelled under the barrage of gunfire behind the container.

"Oh, I'll consider being careful about what I wish for next time!" she snarled back.

"Good idea, because rich snots like you need to learn how to wish better for things that money can't buy!"

"How about I wish for you to put your leadership skills to good use and make sure this won't be our last conversation!"

"Uhm," I looked on the ground and thought for a solution. While the heavy robots were very durable that even or most effective attacks against the androids don't seem to work—it costed their mobility, being heavies and all, which give me time to think while they move slow enough.

I realized that these models were designed to dispatch enemies that in range, the best way to deal with these things was to get close to them while they do their best to push us back and keep that from happening. So we just need to find a way to temporarily suspend them from their attacks so we are able to take them head on in melee which was presumably their weakness—they are supposed to be gunners after all.

Thinking for a way that would get them to stop shooting for long enough for us to get close to them from my knowledge I received from watching Team RWBY coordinate in combat, I eventually found a figurative lightbulb lightening above my head. "Your wish is my command then. What are your and Ruby's team-attack called? White Rose?" I asked her.

She looked pretty annoyed at what I just said, but then again, she always was by default. "It's 'Ice Flower', you  _dummkopf_! Since when have we ever explicitly referred our attack like that?"

Gods, there she goes again. It feels like no matter I do or say, I'll still end up pushing her buttons. "What? You don't like white roses?"

"Oh, we do love flowers as much as other girls but we know not to name our attacks after that!"

Says the person whose team has an attack named after one of their user's favorite tuna brand, **[2]**  but at least they are not combining their names together. "Okay, okay, sorry. Do you remember that Ruby shoots through your glyphs to make a special dust shot?"

She raised a brow in interest. "What are you getting to?"

"If we can't take them down with lasers and dust, then we'll have to use a ice beam that would freeze them long enough for us to get near them and cut them down. These are gunners, they can't take us in a very close range, that's what their red cousins are for."

"That's not actually a bad idea. I recall this working against Torchwick's Paladin. It should work against these robots."

"Then let's not waste any more time."

She rotated her chamber and readied her rapier. "Say the word when you're ready, just don't call it something stupid like what you referred to it earlier or even dare to think about it."

I nodded, I already drew a line from making corny team-attack names anyway. There's just something that just irks me about it.

I noticed that the two robots halted from moving forward and remained stationary, likely because they can't afford to have hostiles get near them even for few feet. Once their next batch of ammo was out, we rushed out of our cover and faced a few yards away from the gunners.

Weiss summoned a glyph in front of us as I crouched down and aimed my pistol with both of my hands towards one of the two droids behind Weiss's glyph. Last time I checked, lasers and dust work fine together so long as you aren't directly shooting the source, unless you needed improvised explosives as we used back at the ship.

I squeezed the trigger and fired a blast as it went through Weiss' glyph. For a split second, I could notice that the laser was colored light-blue instead of red. The ice beam penetrated the first gunner's right arm before it froze. For good measure, I shot its legs twice while being careful not to shatter them. I proceeded to shoot at the second one, freezing its gun and right hand, then its torso and left leg next.

Holy crap, it worked, I joyfully said to myself. Weiss unsummoned the glyph and stormed towards them. I followed as I unsheathed my sword then shaved off the head of the one of the gunner's, making it fly toward the nearby cliff. Weiss meanwhile, dealt with hers by using her glyph to shatter the other robots into pieces. The catwalk towards one of the facilities entrance was clear.

"Well, that went better than expected," Weiss remarked, staring at the droids pieces on the ground turning to me. "You may not be as imbecilic as I thought you to be. I think I'm starting to see how your team and my teammates respect you as a leader and a Huntsman."

"Thanks…" I muttered. "I try you know. You're not bad yourself either."

She made a faint blush for a second before shaking it off and going back the classic Weiss everyone knows and loves. "Now don't get too captivated with my compliment! I still think you're a despicable dunce and you should be treated as such and I haven't forgotten about your recent insolence towards me!"

Of course, I was wondering where was her icy-demeanor hiding during this. She's really insulting me that much, I think it's becoming kinda cute and less damaging the more badmouths me. I swear, if I ever had a lien every time I heard her call somebody an idiot or something synonymous to it since day one—I would be rivaling her family's company in terms of worth. I figured that this day alone was enough to purchase this whole shithole of an island.

"Are you really going to act like a tsundere at best every time I'm stuck with you?" I huffed. Her being pleasant in one second and verbally abusing me in another was really giving me the impression.

"Oh, you must have the nerve to call me tha…!" she grumbled before looking perplexed and stopping. "What's a 'tsundere'?"

I sneered at her obliviousness. "Why a tsundere is a perfect, proper and an ideal lady that is wanted by men and envied by women," I answered sarcastically.

I prepared for her to be offended by that remark and insult me back, but to my surprise, she actually took that heartedly. "Are you trying to flatter me now, Jaune?" she answered smugly and then spoke in a proud manner. "If that's the case, then maybe I am a 'tsundere', and I will continue to act like it because it is what I am. I'm glad to know that even a blockhead like you could acknowledge that."

I did my best to hold my laughter with all the self-control I could muster. I didn't expect her to actually for fall that. It doesn't even sound like she's snarking back at me unless she's trying to screw with me. I hope she doesn't get too pissed when she finds out what it actually means.  **[3]**  It's like the nicest thing I ever called her especially if you compare it to the other things I labeled her as. The 'dere' part in that implies that there was still hope for her.

"Right~…" I muttered, still at disbelief with her reaction. "Let's just not waste any more time and get in."

She nodded as we both went across the catwalk to finally get into Doctor Merlot's lair.

**=o=**

  1. _The length of the mutated Grimm's transformation depends on the specimen's size and the complexity of their biology, which explains why most of the Mutated Grimm were Creeps as they are much more easier and quicker to mutate._
  2. _He was referring to 'Bumblebee Tuna', since Blake and Yang's dynamic are named 'Bumblebee', despite it having its name because bees contain the colors black and yellow, representing Blake and Yang respectively. Coincidentally, Yang also nicknamed her motorcycle as 'Bumblebee' but she has said to have given it long before Beacon._
  3. _The term actually meant to describe a person—usually young females—who is considered to be pleasant and caring (dere) beneath a sour exterior (tsun). It is usually used in Mistrali pop culture. When I looked up the actual definition myself, I don't know whether to feel insulted or flattered._



* * *

When we entered Merlot's facility, we found ourselves in a dark, almost pitch black room. I turned on my scroll's flashlight and saw that we were in some sort of storage room where barrels of the serum were shelved. If I didn't know any better I would have smashed everything here to lessen Merlot's supply of mutagen, but I was warned that the serum attracts Grimm as if it was negative emotion and that we were to lessen Grimm presence first before doing so.

I called over Ozpin for our status update, "Headmaster, we're finally in."

"Good. I want you to locate Dr. Merlot and put him in custody while you wait for rescue and reinforcements which should arrive shortly. Search for a map or anything that would provide us insights into the facility's layout to make the navigation of that building less troubling. Destroy anything that progresses Merlot's experiment if necessary, but be careful, while we are aware of what these things could do, we don't know everything about them. Above all, be wary of his security. Take care." he responded.

We proceeded to skip this room since there wasn't much to do, and we still have some things to do first before blindly destroying every equipment we see.

When we exited the storage room, lights suddenly turned on by itself, revealing a corridor filled white walls with screens while the floor was black and tiled hexagonally. The screens showing Doctor Merlot's face.

This was the first time we saw what he looked like since during the scroll channel his profile icon was blank. Here, he is revealed to have medium-gray hair with a mustache and beard, with eyebrows that were no less thick. What was the most disturbing part about him was his left cybernetic eye which was glowing red. Apart from that, he appears to be wearing a scientist's gown, overall, giving in the appearance of the evil scientist he was.

"Greetings, and welcome to Merlot Industries, where we're building a better tomorrow—today!" Merlot on the screen spoke.

We assumed the screens were playing pre-recorded footage that was played every time someone visits, so we ignored them for now and wander around the facility until we found something.

"Here at Merlot Industries, we take pride in innovation. Together, with your help... and a little of your special spark, we will build a better tomorrow!"

"For you, Merlot, there won't be any tomorrow to 'restore'." Ozpin sternly responded to the messages from our scroll's speakers.

We later would find ourselves in the atrium, according to the label on the wall. There were a few boxes scattered around inside the facility, most of them were empty though, however, some of them contained a few dust shards and some sellable items that could fill my pockets with lien after taking them to the pawn shop.

After walking throughout the hall for a couple of minutes, we can't help but notice the facility being empty containing almost nothing but the same screens on every wall. All we could do was keep moving forward.

"This place looks abandoned, where is everyone?" Weiss asked. I guess that it was only Merlot, his metal slaves and some Grimm is everything we're up against. Not a single soul appears to be working for him, probably because he didn't need them and no one was insane enough to be under his wing. I wouldn't be surprised if he did purge his employees.

"Making yourselves at home, I see?" Merlot said in a screen, except this one clearly wasn't pre-recorded and he was looking directly at us, startling me for a second. "I want my guests to feel welcome, but unfortunately, my security team rarely feels the same. Still, there's a good reason why they behave that particular way to you."

There was a security camera placed near the screen. I wasted no time and replied by firing at the security camera, detaching it from the wall then shatter to the floor.

"Please remain from vandalizing the security cameras so we will be able to properly monitor our visitors and employees for the sake of their security and safety."

"Sorry, I get pretty shy in front of camera!" I replied as I shot the screen as well. For the sake of our security and safety, my ass.

Turning away from the broken screen that now has a hole on it, a turret came out from the ceiling. I quickly expanded my shield and blocked the gunfire as Weiss ducked behind and cast ice shards toward the turret until it was frozen. It then fell unto ground before shattering in pieces.

More of the red robots appeared. We fell back as I threw some ice dusts on the floor, creating a puddle of ice. A few of the robots slipped and fell to the ground as I finished them off by stabbing them as they slide, Weiss dealt with the others by stunning them with electric dusts then pushing them away to a wall where they shatter, one of the screens even falling to one of them for an added insult.

We noticed a nearby elevator (or 'lift' as they're called to native Valians) opened we noticed after dispatching the androids. We quickly rushed to it and activated it before more security androids arrive to make our day harder.

The elevator's doors closed and it descended to the lower levels. The elevator was shaky and fast that you could easily mistake that it was crashing. It was a miracle that neither of us lost balance and fell, not even Weiss who she was wearing heels. Thankfully, it was very brief but I wonder how many lawsuits this company used to receive from visitors and employees for their uncomfortable elevators.  **[1]**

When it finally opened, we were greeted with a sight of a large room filled with tanks containing and harvesting the serum from the island's soil.

"Here before you are stage 2 processing tanks." Merlot announced on the laboratory's P.A.

The room was leaking of Scavers and some Creeps that appeared to have dug out from the earth, a few of them were even mutated. They were trying to scratch the tanks of the serum that they were so attracted to, but their attention turned to us once we arrived.

It was pretty tempting to destroy the tanks, but until I was sure that the Grimm would stop leaking, it wouldn't be practical, it would only just give them free mutations. This wouldn't be so bad if all of them were just Creeps since we would only just stand back and let the fireworks happen, but there were also Scavers around the area, and we weren't sure what a large mutated Grimm rat exactly does, so it would be better to study them with one of the two Mutated Scavers present there. The military was going blow up this island once we're out of here anyway, besides I don't want to become an even worse Grimm magnet by having the serum spilled on my clothes, my shoes a have already stepped on enough of them.

The regular Creeps dug near to us, Weiss and I did the pleasure of slashing and stabbing them to oblivion. The mutated ones followed—Weiss and I strafed back and used our respective range attacks, creating green explosions between us.

The Scavers charged towards us, I fired my laser pistol at those overgrown rodents because I am not taking the chance of them poisoning me. They were still one of the weakest common Grimm so it wasn't much trouble getting rid of them, what worries me are the Mutated Scavers since this was our first encounter with them. They were only two and they don't seem to be more threatening than a Mutated Creep but we still don't know what mutations they were given aside from their new appearance and slightly increased size.

"Ugh, why do these rats have to mutate when I already loathe their normal forms?" Weiss grimaced, repulsed at the sight of her least favorite Grimm specimen and the animal it was based on.

"Probably because regular Scavs' wasn't bad enough for him. Whatever these things would bring, it obviously won't be good." I said as I readied my gun. "Get ready. We wouldn't know until we see what happens after I damage them."

I fired at one of them. Much like the regular Scavers, they are just as fragile, going down in one or two hits. But it turned out, it actually wasn't a good move because killing a single Mutated Scaver caused it to collapse and multiply to a swarm of miniature glowing rodents that were now racing toward me.

"Oh, rats!" I swore, holstering my gun and panickly grabbing Weiss hand and making a run from them.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Weiss asked, blushing at me abruptly holding her hand as we were both chased by the swarm.

"Saving our butts from being poisoned! Don't worry, Weiss, handholding does not confirm relationships—only fans of cheap rom-coms think that!" I quipped in hopes of coping from this madness.

Once we were far enough, yet the swarm was quickly catching up to us, Weiss made a proposal. "Let me go, I have an idea." I looked at her for a moment complying, hoping that she knows what she is doing. "You might want to hold on."

Weiss then summoned a glyph for us each to launch us to the air before the swarm of Scavers managed to reach us. Weiss summoned another couple of glyphs to keep us elevated in midair, I balanced myself on it glyph as Weiss casts a fireball burning the swarm and the three-feet radius around it, even igniting the nearby Mutated Scaver which eventually burned down along the swarm that spawned from it.

She then casted ice dust to extinguish the fire below us, making it safe to put us down. "Gods, I hate those things," she remarked.

I pushed myself up and saw that area was clear of Grimm… for now. One of the screens flickered on with another announcement from Merlot. "Thank you for getting rid of those pests. I would have sent my androids to dispatch them, but this saves me trouble. This way please." he said, opening another elevator.

"Is it just me, or is he a little too welcoming?" Weiss asked suspiciously.

I can sense that there was something sinister that he has stored for us, but we had nowhere else to go so there was nothing else we could do but move forward and prepare for the worst. "Oh, he is definitely not sending us to a trap."

"It's either that or facing an endless horde of robots upstairs." she said as we both headed to the elevators."

"Might want to warn the others about the mutant Scavers." I said, taking out my scroll. They would have been huge trouble if it wasn't for Weiss fire dusts, and I have to make sure the others were prepared to handle them, otherwise, it might take them longer to get here. "Professor, you might want to tell the others to watch out for Mutant Scavers. They multiply to a swarm of small rodents once you kill one. Tell them to have some fire dusts ready."

"Duly noted. Thank you for the warning, Mr. Arc. The mutated Grimm are a rather new adversary for us that every piece of information. Continue your expedition and notify us if you found a new threat. Your team should be arriving any minute now." Ozpin responded. The others better be here shortly, because this mission was getting worst by the minute.

I braced myself for another bumpy elevator ride and boy was I right. I swear, if it didn't last for less than five seconds I would be puking on the floor and Weiss would nag me as long as we're stuck with each other. I know that Merlot hasn't gotten any visitors until we came along, but couldn't he fix this crap on his spare time?

The door opened to a hallway to the next section. We were greeted by more screens of Merlot. "Here we have the Engineering Wing—the so-called 'brains' of the operation if you're not counting my own intellect," he said before laughing at himself.

I don't think anyone is counting on that, you've pretty much lost your mind at this point.

"Don't be timid. There aren't any traps here… yet." he continued before the screen transitioned back to showing just his company's logo.

"Thanks for the heads-up," I said dryly.

"Showing gratitude to the man that's trying to kill us now, huh?" Weiss snidely replied.

"Old geezer needed some compliments after being alone on this dumpster-fire for so long. Your parents told you to respect the elderly, didn't he?"

"How thoughtful of you. And yes, in fact, I've shown more respect toward the elderly than what my father expected from me."

"Good to know you sympathize with your fellow white-hairs."

"I take it you don't do the same, judging on that remark."

"Oh, I didn't mean any offense in that, it's just that you can be a grumpy old lady sometimes."

"That only shows how I'm too mature for the likes of you."

"Right then, grandma," I replied, making her roll her eyes out of annoyance.

We pressed forth, they'll be time for bantering later, and I wasn't going to make this trip longer by stalling, although it did assure me the others are going arrive any moment now.

The engineering wing was full of computer terminals and workbenches. Aside from that, there wasn't much to make out for it other than I took some parts that may find to be useful—particularly dusts and weapon upgrades.

It didn't take long for us to find a row of computers with a terminal in the middle of it. We concluded that this where they store their data and information.

"That's a lot of computers," I remarked, I felt like I was in a room of a space station that needs several supercomputers and a lot of bandwidth to get their operations working.

"We appear to be in some sort of data processing center," Weiss uttered. "We should be able to gain access to every info we needed for this mission."

She headed to the terminal and booted it on, only to be greeted a screen asking for a password to gain access to it. "Ugh, of course, it's encrypted."

Remembering the password I used on the communications tower, it could work on here but it was also just as likely that it might now work because not every computer in the facility uses the same password, but the one I got apparently was an admin code so it was worth a try.

"Let me see if this could work," I said. Weiss moved aside before I typed in 'Lusus Naturae'. I was prepared to receive a text saying that it was the wrong password however it managed to work again. "Would you look at that."

Weiss breathes out. "Thank Gods for your compulsive l scavenging then and whoever wrote that note."

I know, right? It feels like I'm at Their mercy at the moment.

Browsing through the terminal's contents, I navigated through an index containing records of the company and the facility itself. I've managed to find a document containing a map that not only covers the very laboratory we were at but the rest of the island as well. It has everything we needed to navigate the area and help the others when they arrived. I quickly sent it to our CCT server, the computer estimates the upload to be completed after five minutes. Well, it does contain legends, blueprints and additional information about the island rather than just showing you the layout, so the file itself was bigger than expected.

While waiting for the computer to upload the map, in the meantime, I decided to check out other things in the computer for anything else that could be some help to us.

What got my attention was a folder named 'Projects,' I checked it to see if there was anything that could tell me about his current experiments on the mutating Grimm and what the evil plan he has used for them. Entering the folder, I saw several more folders containing projects that were either labeled as 'Cancelled', 'Failed' and 'On Hold', but what stood out that weren't labeled and it was on the very top and was also the most recent called 'Project: Grimm Eclipse'. That has to be one of the worst projects names that I ever have the privilege of reading, it sounded like a title for a mediocre video game.

It was without a doubt that it concerns the Grimm mutations, so I was about to enter the folder the moment I realized what it was. But before I was able to go further, Merlot was able to catch up with what we're doing.

"Ugh, I should have expected this. The moment I found out that you somehow managed to gain access to my network, I feared that you might be able to leak information critical to my experiment." Merlot grumbled, "Since you children are so curious about my works, allow me to introduce one of my finest creations."

Weiss and I readied our weapons for our next adversary. Loud metallic stomps were heard from the nearby Manufacturing Wing. We quickly turned toward it and saw a silhouette leaped toward us. It revealed itself to be a silver, twelve-foot robot clad in armor that appeared to be thicker than the ones carried by the android gunners, it was wielding a war-hammer in its right hand and a tower shield in another.

This is going to be one tough nut to crack, I thought.

"Behold, the 'Dust-Immune Prototype Securidroid & Hostile-Intercepting Terminator' or simply called 'The Terminator' in short. Now, I would have changed the name because it was apparently trademarked, but that's not relevant now, is it? As the name suggests, this machine is immune to all sorts of dust attacks, so forget about ever trying your clever abilities, Miss Schnee."  **[2]**

"This is not good..." Weiss winced. I was about as terrified as her, this robot already appeared threatening enough and it was made worse when we heard that it was resistant to any form of dusts. I know I don't over-rely on dust in the first place, but it was still useful in making fights easier. I just needed to find a way to bring this down and I didn't expect it to be a walk in the park, seeing how this was one of Merlot's finer creations.

"I've managed to create the design before that fool Polendina could copy it. The Kingdoms would have done everything they could get to their hands on it if I had released it to the public, but I thought it was better off to get rid of pests who attempts to ruin my vision. I've always wanted to use it against Huntsmen, now it's my chance!" Merlot finished, now prompting the Terminator to swing its hammer to the floor.

Weiss and I leaped back as the floor shook from the thud. I tried to fire a few laser blasts on it but it was able to deflect them with its shield. Weiss bolted towards its torso and spun around as she tries to damage it, only to make a scratch out of it at best. The Terminator strafed back and tried to swing the hammer at her vertically as she was still in midair, but Weiss quickly managed to quickly elevate herself to the ceiling and push herself back at the ground again.

The Terminator raised its hammer to swing it, Weiss summoned a large glyph it an attempt to block it and maybe even knock it back, only for it to be broken by the hammer. Weiss made a slight painful grunt and dashed back to avoid the hammer. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

It looked like we need to find a weak spot or this robot isn't going anywhere because it has more protection than a sacred cow with overzealous worshippers. If Professor Peach was able to see this stupid thing, she is going to roll on the floor so hard, her goggles will break.

The Terminator began swinging its large hammer around vertically, I barely managed to duck it while Weiss used a glyph to jump from it, she summoned another glyph to launched herself towards it, only for her to stop when it starts facing its shield at her, causing her to land it on her feet and flip back to the ground.

With the Terminator facing Weiss, it was now open on the other side. I aimed at its head and fired a shot. While it did make some damage, it appears that it has head protection as well. The shot managed to anger to it which made it shove its shield towards me before it tries to hammer Weiss with its weapon, I had to roll back and keep a distance just to be safe.

While it was tougher than any robot we face, it was so noticeably slow that Weiss managed to dash near below it as she dodged the strike from the hammer. It appears as if she doesn't want to believe that it was fully dust-resistant, so after scraping its leg a few times, she tries to plant an ice puddle below it to see if it might slip. It didn't work, a single stomp from the robot's foot was enough to shatter and break the solid puddle on the floor. Well, that's a way to demonstrate its anti-dust features. He really did think of everything, I'll give that evil old coot credit for actually managing to counter dust and I really hate it.

The robot kicked Weiss back, throwing her to the wall of computers, slightly damaging it and causing the upload (which was almost complete) to stop for a second before continuing. That was close, it almost gave me a heart attack and it would have been problematic for us to lose that map. I'm pretty sure Merlot doesn't want to destroy his own data unless he has a backup somewhere.

Weiss appeared to be fine, unfortunately, the damage absorbed a lot of her aura that she wouldn't be able to use her semblance as much. This robot's anti-dust features was really getting the best of her. She'll be okay, she'll just have to suppress her penchant of abusing glyphs during combat.

What's taking the others so long? If there was a situation where we need both of our team's combined strengths, now was a perfect time. Since they should arrive within a few minutes, I was thinking that we stall this thing for long enough until they came for our rescue, but Merlot was pretty determined to destroy us with this 'fuck you dust users machine' and we'd be dead or out of aura by then, so I wasn't going to risk it.

"Stupid anti-dust, I fought a foe like this before, this is not supposed to as hard as it is!" Weiss bellowed, moving at my distance which was several feet away from the Terminator's range at the moment. "Any ideas?"

I looked at the Terminator to study its design but it was also when it began to charge at us with its shield on the front and we had to quickly dodge to the side away from each other.

Now that it was on the other side of the room and was facing backward, I had a brief moment to discover that—like a knight's plate armor, it wasn't doesn't fully cover the wearer's body, some parts of its arms and especially its thighs were the most noticeable, with the latter being the least protected. Reinforced armor plates aside, it's pretty obvious that it's vulnerable to normal attacks.

"We hit it where it hurts!" I declared, giving my sword a twirl. "The robot has some unarmored parts, we just need to get near them!"

The Terminator then began to leap with its hammers raised. Weiss and I hastily spread out to get away from its attack radius. The second it smashed the ground, we both leaped to avoid the shockwave caused by the impact, Weiss mounts the hammer and runs up to the Terminators right arm and slices its open elbow then slashed through the next, meanwhile, I ran towards below it and slashed the back of its thigh. Sparks were coming out, telling us that we were able to damage it.

It then slammed its tower shield on the ground, causing me to fall at my bottom. I quickly crawled back to keep a distance away from one of its upcoming attacks. Weiss jumped to a wall and grabbed it as she summoned a glyph that launched her toward The Terminator's neck in an attempt to slice it. However, it swung its hammer and managed to hit her to the ground, with her aura almost shattering.

"Weiss!" I was so alarmed by her getting hit, I didn't realize that the Terminator shoved its shield and knocked me back for a few feet until it was too late.

Weiss was struggling to push herself from ground, having only a few of her aura left that one more successful strike would mean the end of her, but I still have plenty of mine left so I was able to recover and ran toward her as the Terminator was about to deliver another blow in an attempt to finally kill her.

I hurriedly expanded my shield and ran to Weiss' front; I infused my own shield with as much of my own aura as I could as I block off the robot's hammer. I was slightly pushed by its strength, but I did my best to stubbornly push back to give Weiss enough to time to recover and get her rich heiress butt out of there. I groaned as my arms continue to wrestle the Terminator's weapon, struggling even with the aid of my own aura. I knew I shouldn't have half-assed my own workout and lifted more weights.

Weiss saw me pushing back the robot to save her from getting crushed. Instead of moving away as I expected her to, she abruptly took my laser pistol from my holster after getting up—much to my shock and bewilderment. I was about to ask her hell w as she doing, that is until I saw her aim towards its unarmored thighs and fired a couple of blasts, making the robot flinch back and pulled away its hammer.

It was now my chance to strike back. Taking a few breaths, I folded my shield and put it at my belt and stormed toward the Terminator and leaped to its upper body. I held its shoulder with my left hand as I thrust my sword to its neck repeatedly. The Terminator tried to shake me off and swing its hammer repeatedly, but I was out of its range and held on tight.

To finally top it off, I finally sliced off the neck and jumped away as it fell on its back, making a loud thud across the room with its metal body.

I panted as I went to the computer's monitor and saw that the upload was complete. That's another android down and another objective completed. Good freaking riddance. This mission was getting dangerously ridiculous that if this keeps up and we're still stuck with our supplies exhausting, it would be the end of us.

Weiss walked toward, she was holding her side was somewhat stumbling. She tossed me my gun as I caught by its warm barrel that was currently cooling down. "Not a fan of firearms myself, but I'd say this one pretty neat. Atlesian tech, is it not?"

"Thanks, I'm proud of it too. Not gonna lie, you guys make the best stuff." I said, giving a few twirls before holstering it. Got to thinking, I used my gun too many times in this mission that I was running short of laser ammo. Better prepare myself into selling my loot so I could have money to buy more then.

I took my scroll and notified Ozpin. After dealing with this specialized elite robot, it was best to get out of this as soon as possible, I have lost count with how much robots I killed since arriving this island. "Professor Ozpin, I got you your map."

"Yes, I know. I have now begun scrutinizing it. Excellent job, students." Ozpin answered, "I also heard that Merlot sent an elite anti-dust android if so, have you been able to handle it yet?"

"We did. It wasn't easy, but let's just say Weiss is free to use most of her spells again." I said, looking at Weiss, who just rolled her eyes at that quip but doesn't seem to be offended. Understandable, there were worse things to worry about.

"How? Just how?" Merlot's voice bellowed on the scroll channel. "I worked years on that machine to protect my work from puny Huntsmen such as yourself. To see it defeated by a couple of school children and now my information getting leaked. How are you so determined to get this far? I have underestimated you rascals, you turn out to be more trouble then you're worth."

Yeah, well, I'm not enjoying this either. Maybe, you shouldn't have trapped us in that crate and send us here, we wouldn't have been determined to screw up your facility in an effort to leave.

"We have the location of your island and evidence of your experiments. Your safe haven will be bombarded once my students have reached to safety. You've already lost, Merlot. Let my students go and surrender yourself, maybe you'll find yourself at the mercy of the authorities." Ozpin responded to him. Listening closely I could hear him take a sip from his mug—like he always does.

"Absolutely not! I refuse to let myself get captured after watching years of hard work simply get wasted by children! If this ought to be my downfall, then I am taking you're two precious prodigies with me! Bring me your worst, I will be waiting."

Of course, being absolutely insane that he still chooses not to give up, abandoning all reason and logic when he is inevitably screwed. I really can't wait to finally meet this guy face to face for all the trouble he put me. He has been giving me the motivation to capture him when all I wanted was to finish the job so I could take the reward and leave so I could ready my vacation plans when the school year is over.

"Still as stubborn as always. This path has led to your undoing before, it will lead you to it again." Ozpin sighed before shifting his attention to us. "Mr. Arc, Miss Schnee. Your teammates are now deployed on the island and are heading to your position. Judging by your aura levels, take a short break as you wait for them to arrive. You're doing quite well, keep it up. You're guaranteed to pass this year."

I took a huge breath and sat at the wall of computers, with Weiss following beside me. If the next room is going to be as exciting as this, then we need to be in better condition and let our auras regenerate first. We just need to keep a lookout for another wave of securidroids unless Merlot is saving them for later instead of using them to attack us while one us has wavered.

**=o=**

  1. _Surprisingly, none. The laboratory's elevators were said to be stable when the company was still active. The lack of maintenance over the years may probably be the reason why the elevator performed that way._
  2. _While anti-dust technology wasn't exactly new at the time_ — _in fact, it has been around years prior—it was rare, expensive and barely reliable. Over the years, it would become increasingly common, albeit slowly due to nobody being able to salvage Merlot's anti-dust tech and reverse-engineer them, thus putting its research in a breakthrough. If things have gone differently, Merlot's invention would have pioneered anti-dust tech and it would have been mastered years earlier._



* * *

Few minutes since we defeated the anti-dust droid, we have been staring at the wall, and occasionally the ceiling, rarely making eye contact with each other. I decided to break the silence and complement her into helping me killing the robot—the same time when she decided to also open her mouth.

"Hey, you did pretty great back—"

"You know, I really should thank—"

We both flushed and looked away at each other, still contemplating on the fact that we are getting cozy to each other because it all started when we argued over dust ownership.

After a moment of awkward silence, I turned my head back to her. "You were saying?"

"I want to thank you for defending me when I faltered. I barely had enough aura left to protect me from another strike," she said to me rather warmly, contrasting her usually cold demeanor since she was in a good mood.

"I didn't expect you'd show some gratitude." I smugly replied.

She pouted at me over the remark. "Of course I would. Imagine almost dying and not thanking your lifesaver at least once. I know I'm not exactly the most affable person around but at least I'm not that ungrateful."

I still don't think I deserved to be thanked for doing something that we are supposed to do as a Huntsman. I mean, we'll be saving each other a lot. "Aren't our lives always in danger ever since we chose to become Huntsmen?"

"Gods, you really are an idiot. Put yourself in a near-death experience and maybe you'll understand."

Been there way too many times, I'm afraid. "Well, I have a reputation to uphold. It's not like I'm actually being selfless or anything." I said rather insincerely despite the volume of truth, that way she wouldn't believe it.

"Keep telling yourself that," she sneered.

Trust me, I would definitely will.

"So, what do you want me to say? Tall, blond and scraggly at your service?" I asked.

"That's still better than your shallow attempts on denying the fact that you low-key saved me, even if it sounds stupidly cheesy."

I made a faint chuckle. "You know, Weiss, with that smart-mouth of yours, you'd fit right into my family."

"I don't know what you're exactly implying with that, but I can't imagine myself sharing your last name," she remarked. "Can you tell me about them though? I'm rather curious, I've heard about them before, I even read about some of your ancestors."

"Well, everyone knows my father, Caiaphas, a Huntsman that was so renowned for his skills that the council made him a Commissar **[1]** ; my mother was some country girl that turned into some religious symbol and became some sort of paladin. Together, they did their best to make the world a safer place to live in and wipe off stains in the world's map, then they decided to marry, have eight kids and tone-down their work so they could keep raising and looking after us. Not to mention, both of them is where all of our sarcasm came from, we like to think that their quipping is what actually got them married in the first place." I chuckled, "Anyway, they left some pretty big shoes for me to fill."

"I can relate to that, upholding a family's legacy is never easy," she sympathetically remarked, "What about your siblings? I have a couple of siblings myself, but I can't imagine living with seven of them while they all apparently inherit their parents' sarcasm".

"I guess you know who to blame for all the quips I threw at you," I sneered. "To put it simple, my eldest sister is a sapphic egghead who does all of our homework, the others are a seamstress who once murdered a Beringel over fabric;  **[2]**  a tree-hugging hippie; a gun-toting bounty hunter; a grunge fan who bullies me but is also my best friend and lastly; twins that are pop-stars that also has my parent's training. I'm the youngest and the only son, you do the math."

"Sounds like a wild household, and I thought the three of us were complicated."

"What can you tell me about yours then?"

"To start, there's Winter, my elder sister who I look up to since I was little. She brave, strong and wise. She would have made a better heiress than I did."

I was rather surprised by Weiss displaying humility when I have known to her to be a usually pompous, cold and arrogant brat, but now I find myself becoming sympathetic to her.

Her tone noticeably becomes more downtrodden. "But she refused the position—even if it did suit her, preferring to work for the military instead, much to my father's disappointment. Now I'm trying my best to be something like her, but thankfully she's willing to help me, even mentoring me a few times," she said, cheering up. It's nice to see that Weiss has a role-model of her own, seeing people siblings guide their younger siblings always puts a smile on my face. "Then there's my brother, Whitley. In all honesty, I can't really talk much about him since we aren't really close. I don't believe that he's even fond of me. Nonetheless, he's still my brother, and whatever he is up to, it was my duty to look after him, and sometimes he may even help me out in return."

"That's siblings for you; sometimes they help you, sometimes they don't," I said.

"You're not wrong."

We sat there for another couple of minutes when suddenly, a distinct voice belonging to a hammer-wielding teammate of mine was heard across the room, making both of us stand. They were finally here.

"Ugh, those elevators make me want to me barf!"

"I wonder what Jaune must have felt when riding those."

Yang, I can hear you, but yeah, those elevators suck; can't really blame Nora.

"Weiss~?! Jaune~?! Are you there?" Ruby called.

"Might want to tone it down, the androids and Grimm might be able to sense us," Blake said.

"The area seems clear to me," Ren replied.

"The professor said that they were last seen on this wing, they should be around here," Pyrrha stated.

Shortly after, the six of them stepped into the data-processing room and found us. "Weiss! Jaune!" Ruby promptly dashed in with her semblance and within a flash, she was now hugging both of us.

"Not too hard! I'm still trying to recover." Weiss told her.

"Oh, sorry!" Ruby apologized as she let go of us and stepped back.

Pyrrha walked up to me and smiled. "Glad to see that you're okay, Jaune. I knew he wouldn't be able to break you that easily."

"The journey here took some sweat, but I wasn't going to let him get to me that easily." I boasted, putting my hero face on.

"Of course, you wouldn't. You're not going to let that evil scientist get what he wants, now would you?" Nora inquired.

"Yeah, foiling bad guy's plan is all in a days work for me." I said, slightly giving an impression of some sort of superhero.

"That's our leader!" she chirped up.

"Good to see you two alive and well, Ice-queen and Bike-Stealer," Yang said.

I faintly narrowed my eyes at her. "I thought we agreed that you'd stop calling me that, Pie-face."

"Hey, I'm sorry, but your indiscriminate yoinking is what got you here. Not that I'm complaining, you two are still alive and you're able to lead us to find Doctor Badguy's lair." she defended.

"Excuse me, I do not steal indiscriminately! I only take from our enemies and stuff that no one owns anymore!" I agitatedly corrected.

"Sure, whatever."

I'm getting called out by someone who has a record of several offenses and a lot of misdemeanors that she got the worst punishment last month. What has my life become?

Pyrrha held my shoulder. "Jaune, maybe you should start being more careful with your looting. I was really worried on what might have happened when you were abducted."

"Trust me, I think I've already learned my lesson." I hesitantly nodded.

"I hope it's worth the wait, Fearless Leader! I'm really sorry that we weren't able to save you before, we knew we could have done something." Nora shamefully apologized.

"Hey, it's okay, Nora, don't worry about it. What matters now is that you're here and I can't be any more happy than that," I reassured as I gave her the encouraging words like the good leader they thought me as. "Now, we can finish this mission together."

"So, I heard that you two fought a large anti-dust robot," Yang said, "Are they any more of them?"

"I think he only has one model for it… hopefully," Weiss answered.

"That sucks. I would have loved to fight it, should have waited for me," She disappointedly muttered.

"Trust me, if we expected something like that, I would have left it to you. Those things almost killed me you know!" Weiss replied.

"…And it should have!" Merlot bursted. A screen suddenly flashed open on the room, revealing a live camera of his portrait.

"Would you mind? The grownups are talking," I sneered at him.

"Hey! I thought I was the one who's supposed to make the wisecracks here." Yang remarked.

You're not the only smart-mouthed blonde here, Yang. "Mind if we share the role then?"

Merlot then started speaking, "How precocious. I just want to let you know that my ambitions aren't the only thing that is going to be destroyed this day! Now that your whole team is here, you can all die toge—!" His feed abruptly ended after Pyrrha fired a single round to the screen.

"Good job, Pyrrha," I said as she gives me a nodding smile.

Ozpin began speaking through our scrolls. "Students, I'm glad to see that you've finally reunited, but let's not waste any time now. According to the map that was sent to me, it appears that the facility contains a self-destruct sequence that Merlot would be able to trigger as a last-resort option."

Self-Destruct?! Please, tell me you're joking, Ozpin!

"You can use the map yourself in this channel. Merlot's workplace is up ahead. I suggest you advance immediately." he said before ending his call.

"I think I got all the aura I need. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Weiss said.

"Alright, everybody, let's move out! Let's give this evil doctor the taste of his own medicine!" Ruby said.

"Please don't tell me you're planning on mutating him." I quipped.

"Don't worry, the mutagens will probably just kill him," Weiss assured. "And yes, I'm aware of the metaphor."

We then all proceeded to the Manufacturing Wing. I had my sword prepared for the worst of Merlot since this is basically the final stage of the mission. We didn't know what type of mutant Grimm we had to face next.

"Team, be warned that there's also an android assembly and a confinement of Grimm on the way there! Do not forget that we need Merlot alive so that he can be questioned for his crimes. A Bullhead will be waiting for you at the landing pad near his workshop. Remember that prudence is of the essence!"

Just what I was afraid of.

As we went further into the manufacturing wing, we began to wonder where are all the robots and Grimm at when Merlot was preparing to destroy us. We arrived on a three-way junction, with the left path leading to the android assembly being guarded by an army of robots, with expendable red androids on the front and four heavy gunners on the back; The other path leading to the biological lab which was blocked by Mutated Grimm—mostly consisting of Mutated Creeps with a couple of Mutated Beos and for the first time—a single Mutant Ursa.

Oh, crap, this is going to be one hell of a party. This place is going to be a mess once we're done.

"Oh-ho! This is going to be a whole lot of fun!" Yang said, readying her weapons, along with everybody. Team RWBY was facing the Grimm while Team JNPR was focusing on the robots on the other side. I took a deep breath as think for a way to defeat both of them without any casualties from our side.

"You still have the EMPs, don't you, Ren?" Nora asked.

"Of course," he said,

"Thank Gods for that," I puffed, I wouldn't know what to do without them. "Give 'em some blue screens."

Ren threw the EMP grenades and disabled the red androids, the gunners were stunned for a few seconds or so but it appears as if their circuits are also protected so they were able to recover quickly from the EMPs. Nora charged and smashed away all the overloaded androids, some of them being thrown to the heavies as they attempt to fire their weapons at us.

Ren, Pyrrha and I helped clear the path from the red androids. The gunners began to fire their weapons at us, prompting me and Pyrrha to raise our shields and for Ren and Nora to take cover behind us.

"Nora, smoke!" I ordered.

"That won't work! The androids are equipped with sensors that allow them to target us even behind smoke." Ren told me, and Nora was pretty aware of this too, judging that she didn't comply immediately like she always would.

With that, I had to look another way. I realized that while they were resistant to EMPs, they were not fully immune to it. It would at least buy us some time. And also there's this other thing. Gulp. Here goes nothing. "Ren, throw more EMPs at it; Pyrrha, cover me; and Nora…" I faced her, and she was more than eager and prepared for my orders than ever. "Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword."

Nora smirked and gave me a two finger salute. I know this sounds something too crazy for something for me to do but I refused to waste ammo, and I needed to get close to them because it was safer and it was the most practical way to deal with them.

Ren threw a handful of EMP grenades to the gunners that were still firing their weapons. The grenades ignited, briefly stunning them, giving me a window of fewer than three seconds to get close to them. I collapsed my shield and put it back on my belt before Nora grabbed my left-hand and propelled me toward the heavies. I raised my sword before grabbing one of them in the chest and thrusting my weapon through its head as it falls back onto the floor.

The other robots recovered from the EMPs and faced towards me. I expanded my shield and used it to shove away one of the its guns and sliced off its arm. They were to preoccupied with me that next thing they know, Nora jumped in and completely crushed another one of them with a single strike of a hammer. Pyrrha's spear was thrown into one of the heavies neck—the one which I sliced the arm off from. She then leaped in and grabbed it and pulled it out as she bounced off its chest. Ren remained at the back, providing cover with clips of armor-piercing bullets.

Meanwhile, on Team RWBY's side of things while they were fighting the mutated Grimm. Ruby was zooming around one of the Mutant Beos while trying to slice it down with her scythe; Weiss was gathering Mutant Creeps and contained them with glyphs suppressing their explosion as they kill blow each other to smithereens; Yang was giving jabs to the Mutant Ursa's stomach before dodging right from its claw; Blake was handling the other Mutant Beo, which smashed the floor, bringing green crystals to one of her shadow clones as she stabbed its back a few times and then got out, one Mutant Creep tried to sneak behind her but she was able to notice and used her weapon's whip to hurled it to the last Heavy android standing before exploding along with it.

Now that the robots weren't a problem, we are able to give our sister team a helping hand. Pyrrha fired her rifle at Ruby's Mutant Beo, distracting it away from Ruby as she's able to cut it down in half. Pyrrha then shot the remaining Mutant Creeps who a distance away from Team RWBY and tried to storm at us. I put away my shield and held hands with Ren, masking my emotions with his semblance as I help Blake slay the other Mutant Beowolf by slashing it with my sword as Ren shoots it with his gun on his freehand while the Beo was not able to sense the two of us. Nora shot some grenades at the Mutant Ursa before Yang climbed on it back and pins it down just before Nora steps in and smashed its head into nothing.

"Woo! Alright, who's next?!" Yang stood away from the Mutant's Ursa's corpse. It's a good thing I have adrenaline junkies like her and Nora to leave the more suicidal stuff to. I'm glad I don't have to engage another angry bear.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked, checking everyone's status.

"We're all good!" Ruby gleefully reported, giving a thumbs up. She looks pretty cheerful for someone just fought more advanced version of an Alpha Grimm.

"We should keep moving. Ren, Nora, go the robot assembly and make sure there are no more robots being manufactured. You guys still have EMPs and there shouldn't be too many robots waiting since we wrecked most of them here."

"Roger that! You can always leave the liberation of machine spirits to us!" Nora said. Ren silently nods as they both made their way into the other path.

I faced towards the others and continued. "The rest of us will have to go the biolabs, it should be where all his experiments at. The map says that Merlot's workshop and the airship landing is through there. The sooner we catch Merlot, the better. So, let's get moving."

The girls agreed and accompanied me to the Biolabs. We entered with our weapons drawn, in case when another hostile show up. It was just as bad as I expected, only that the room was brighter than what I pictured it thanks to the lights and the white walls. It contained a room full of glass tanks filled with the serum with unconscious Grimm floating inside—it was something straight out of a horror film, a zombie film, to be exact except it has jars of Grimm instead of humans or faunus.

Aside from the Grimm contained in test tubes, there were also some computers that were calculating the Grimm's stats and biology, and a few workbenches containing some chemist's lab, some dusts vials of mutagen.

I grabbed one of the tablets hanging in the bench to check what's inscribed in it. The title confirmed that this was Project: Grimm Eclipse. The tablet contained stats comparison of the Grimm before and after mutation, as well as a list of specimens and their augmentations. It is said that only Creeps, Scavers, Beowolves, and recently Ursas are the only specimen deemed to be successfully compatible with the mutagen as the tests with other specimen either failed or were still in early stages of development, explaining why those were the only mutated Grimm we were able to encounter.

Though, what caught me the most that really disturbed me was that there as an update saying that he managed to get ahold of a Large-Class Grimm and its test was near-complete.

And I'm still in the blue with Merlot's motivation. What does he exactly plan to do with this? Destroy a kingdom that he loathes so much?

"I don't like this place, can we go now?" Ruby suggested, gripping both handles of her Crescent Rose.

"Looks like there's nothing else of use for us here, apart from files we could give to the Professor. We just have to find Merlot and we'll be out of here." Pyrrha stated.

I took out my scroll and reviewed the map. "Merlot's workplace is right around the corner. If he's not hiding there, then I don't know where."

Suddenly one of the blast doors open. Curious, we all walked toward it. It leads to a huge open space with several screens on the walls with some of the serum spilled on the floor, and there was a large door on the side. We all went through the door for a closer look.

When I connected the dots, I knew this was a trap. I rushed back to the previous room when the door abruptly shut with everyone but me inside.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha yelled out my name and began to slam at the door. I even noticed some black outlines surround the door, suggesting that Pyrrha tried opening it with her magnetism but it was too strong that it remained closed tightly.

"Pyrrha!" I said, also slamming at the door. Worried at what might happen to her and the others now that they were trapped in there.

One of the screens behind flashed open and Merlot made another announcement. "Welcome to the testing grounds, students. Since you are so curious about my research on the Grimm, then you will be thrilled to know that I have synthesized the perfect combination of the serum. So why don't you go and get acquainted with my latest experiment? It may still be in test phase but I know you love challenges and this one could use the exercise."

The screen cut to one of the cameras in the testing ground where the girls were trapped at. Merlot dropped a large Mutated Grimm at the middle of the chamber. The worst part was, it was a DEATHSTALKER.

A Deathstalker… it had to be a freaking Deathstalker, doesn't it? As if regular Deathstalkers weren't horrifying enough.

"Don't be shy, students. You could learn a lot from this enhanced specimen. They won't teach a thing about this in Beacon." Merlot said before cutting his feed into simply showing his logo.

Thank Gods for their standards then. I realize that even their more brutal tests aren't as bad as this. With that, I am never going to take their tests for granted ever again.

Well, that made me almost glad that I bailed out when I had the chance, but I still need to get my friends and partner out of there. As much as I just want to rush to the exit and get in the airship early, it would only warrant unwanted questions about that decision and deny me of the reward. Besides, all I had to do was find and capture Merlot and the find a way to open the test chamber's door so that the others could escape; that doesn't sound hard in paper, but given how stubborn this guy was, I expected it to be anything but easy.

I found out that I don't have a lot of options, so I had to go to Merlot's workplace myself. The map also indicates that it's also near the exit where the landing pad will be waiting, so I'll be able to escape quickly in any case. Apparently, it was designed that way so that the most important personnel was able to leave the facility within a short period of time in case of disasters.

I went to the door of Merlot's personal workplace to find out it was locked. There was some sort of handprint scanner that could be used to unlock the door, but I don't have anything to bypass it. Luckily, the lock allows you conveniently use the master password instead, in case the scanner was unusable due to malfunctions.

I typed in the same password I used to gain access to the island's communications and the laboratory's files—and much to my joy, it worked.

I readied my pistol as the door opened, I saw him facing me in his back. He was watching Team RWBY and Pyrrha fighting the Mutant Deathstalker on multiple different screens, each providing different camera angles on the testing grounds.

He heard his door slid open and turned back to see me step in with my pistol pointed at him. He quickly grabbed his own pistol on his desk with his right hand (which turned out to be robotic) and turned to me as he began hovering his index on a red button and while his robot hand aims his pistol at his own head.

"Hold it right there, Arc! Another move and I will either pull the trigger or initiate the lab's self-destruct that would be activated within less than a minute which won't be enough for you to get everyone evacuated. I'll maybe even do both if I have to! Regardless, I'm not allowing you to take me alive."

Normally, I wouldn't care much if he killed himself; it's not like I wanted him alive. But Ozpin made it clear that he prefers Merlot to be captured and breathing. He still has a lot to answer for. "You wouldn't. You sure you don't want to see the result of your latest experiment first?"

He smiled sinisterly. "You know, I kind of like you, Arc. You and your family have some sort of determination that has always intrigued me. I was wondering where were you since I thought you'd be in the test chambers with your teammates. I've been curious about the moment you gain access to my communications network. How are you able to bypass the network's security? I don't go around telling everybody my password."

"Maybe it's because one of your employees left a piece of paper containing your super-secret master password on your ship?"

"How inconvenient, one of my former employees may have hacked to get my password. I had the suspicion they would try to access my files after the company's decline."

Yeah, well, I should also thank you for not programming your robots into finding and destroying papers that could be vital to those who are hunting you down.

"Look, just give it up. If you want to make the world a better place like what you'd claim, you're going to answer for threatening Remnant with your experiments. You already know that I'm not going anywhere without you in my custody." I said, continuing to aim my gun at him.

"You're berating me of threatening the world? Tell me, how many people did you kill to get your status, both directly and indirectly? How many widows and orphans have you made because someone's family in the White Fang weren't able to go home?"

I think about it sometimes, and they would occasionally even haunt me, but I have probably killed plenty enough that I have got to the point where I really couldn't care less about it anymore so long as nobody is trying to threaten me. The people I killed would have eventually died because of their own pathetic decisions anyway. "Why does that matter? Even if I did kill some people, it was only so that less innocents would die. Can you even say the same with what you're doing?"

Merlot chuckled. "Perhaps not, as a matter of fact, my original plan for this research was to help people, little did you know."

"Huh?" I uttered, widening my eyes in bewilderment.

"It should be no surprise that I have a deep fascination of Grimm, but it wasn't my initial intention to strengthen them into more terrifying monsters everyone already perceives them as. The original purpose of this research was to find a possible solution to the Grimm's hostile nature. The substance that I'm currently using was said to be scientifically possible to remedy the Grimm's perpetual hunger for souls, and perhaps uplift them into something more."

"I take it that it didn't go so well?"

"The substance was dangerous by default as it accelerates a specimen's development to the point that they are able to reach beyond their established evolution, thus, giving them forms that were never before seen. But with a little science, it can be modified into only enhancing the Grimm's intelligence and even remove its blind thirst for negative emotions once and for all. Thus, pacifying them that they're no longer a threat."

He took a breath and continued, "We once thought that the project was a success since all tests and experiments that took years have passed and were proven to be successful. It was a revolutionary discovery that could have solved the biggest problem in Remnant since the beginning of time. After the completion of the project, we gained the approval of The Council to begin taming the Grimm with the modified serum, starting on Mountain Glenn. It worked, The Grimm did not attack a single living being after being stuck with the serum, not even the animals. The road that linked Vale and Mountain Glenn became one of the safest routes in all of Remnant that they were reopened to the public. The Council was very impressed by my work, news around the globe began to circulate about my innovation, and the company was growing bigger than ever that my name has become something to be reckoned with. The Council considered giving me an award. The project was a scientific breakthrough that was changing the world…or so we thought."

Call me pessimistic, but although pacifying the Grimm was a great, if overly-ambitious idea, that I could finally roam around the woods without much worry—it doomed to fail from the start. I don't know about you, but nature is very persistent when it comes to change

"And then what happened?" I asked, being compelled by this information that I almost drew my gun down.

"We were then supposed to carry out another operation to pacify Grimm on another region, it was when I got urgent reports that the test subjects we spent ages experimenting on were not only reverting back to its savage aggressive state but were becoming stronger too, and so was the Grimm that we injected on. We realized that the serum was far from perfect and the effects were only temporal, and it was far too late to pull the plug. The Grimm went back to their feral state and attacked settlements around Mountain Glenn the least everyone expected it. The military and Huntsmen were having difficulties handling them due to the serum making them more powerful and everyone kept helplessly on asking me what to do. The military pinned the blame on me and tried to have me in custody, but I refuse to have any of it. I went into hiding in a safe place where no one would find me. Days later, I would find Mountain Glenn to be bombed into oblivion, Vale being on temporal lockdown, and me being presumed as dead."

That sucks. Must have been pretty tough being held responsible for an entire disaster. I feel kind of sorry for this guy but I have to focus at the task at hand and I still remember what he intends to do with his creations and that he told me all of this while still pointing a freaking gun at his own head.

"When I heard about this, I expected everyone to pay their respects for everything I did to give the world a brighter future despite my shortcomings, but instead I found everyone spitting on my name and blamed the whole incident on me. They shut down my whole company and took everything away from me. They called me a madman, a failure and a fool who thought he change the nature of Grimm. I could never show my face to the public ever again and let them think I'm dead. I've chosen to embrace the image they gave me and carried on my project with a different goal. I always liked the Grimm, there is potential inside them that they cannot unlock for themselves that makes them more than just mindless beasts, so I believe it is my calling to help them receive it. If they chose to see me that way, then so be it."

Well, that was a rather interesting tale of someone's fall from grace and descent to madness that explains some things but it sure did leave some questions. "Why all this? Couldn't you have apologized and prove them wrong by doing better?"

"That is what I am exactly trying to do, except that I have nothing to apologize for. Humans and Faunus are both weak and pathetic excuses of species. There are good reasons why they cannot dominate their own world despite their so-called intelligence. They are destined to live in fear, because they are full of it, whereas the Grimm knows nothing about fear and I'm only trying to put them in their place."

"You really lost it. What about making the world a better place? Are you letting yourself be remembered as a monster forever?" I asked as I carefully stepped into the room closer.

"I am making the world a better place. Salem was right about the world being better off ruled by chaos."

That one left me puzzled. I would have passed it off as another name that was simply mentioned, but I had a feeling that there was more to that name. It felt like it wasn't the first time I heard of it. "Salem? Who's Salem?"

"I see that neither Oz and your own father told you, maybe you could ask him." he sneered.

There were a lot of things going on and more questions just popped up my head while I do my best repress this thought and focus on finding a way to capture him without getting himself or everyone killed.

I looked at one of the screens behind Merlot and found Yang getting thrown into a wall. Merlot just stands there, smirking, not entirely aware of what's going to happen, I could even see her hair glowing on the screen.

"Your efforts to rid the world of Grimm as Huntsmen will be a pointless failure. Grimm will continue to slowly but surely consume every space of Remnant, with or without my gifts to them. If there is anyone who should give up, it would be—" His taunting was interrupted when a cylinder shaped object was tossed inside the room, and it turned out to be an EMP grenade. "Is that—?"

His robotic right arm began to malfunction that he dropped his pistol. I took this opportunity to jolt myself to him and have him pinned on the ground to keep him away from pressing the button. Merlot tried to resisting and pushing me away that I whipped my pistol on his forehead, knocking him unconscious and even stopping his right hand that was moving uncontrollably.

"Still you, then!" I got up and stepped away from his unconscious body and saw Ren appear in the doorway with both of his weapons drawn.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I thought his brains would have splat on my face. Anyway, good job. Wouldn't know what to do without you."

"It's my pleasure." Ren nodded before went to Merlot's body and have his hands cuffed.

I went to the screens and watch the girls struggle with the Mutant Deathstalker while an enraged Yang pushes it back. "Guys, we got him!" I told them on the scroll's channel.

"Wonderful news, Jaune, but we still have a Mutant Deathstalker in our hands," Pyrrha responded.

"Hang on tight. I'll have the door unlocked for you." I put my scroll down and looked around and notice that someone was missing. "Hey, where's Nora?"

"She's waiting for you to open the test chamber's door so she could help. And by the way, she's been electrified."

"So does that mean…" I looked at the screens and saw one of the cameras showing Nora waiting outside the testing ground's door, with lighting visibly sparking around her.

"Let me in, Fearless Leader! Imma 'bout to give this giant some good ole' squashing!"

I smirked and then I went to the controls and pressed the button that opened the door when I found it. "Knock em' dead, Sparky."

She smiled devilishly at the camera before swiftly flashing inside to the room and then hit the Mutant Deathstalker hard enough that it was sent crashing into the other side of the room, giving the wall it a huge crater.

It got up rather angrily, but before it was able to do anything else than screech, it was then hit by a flurry of powerful punches thanks to her semblance being active. Yang then went over the Mutant Deathstalker's body and grabbed its stinger then violently pulled it with almost all of her strength that it was torn off from its body with green liquid squeezing out like blood.

The Mutant Deathstalker could now barely stand, with its legs failing that its body fell to the floor. Yang bolted away from it when Nora finished it off by bouncing into the air and using one last strike to slam it into nothing but green liquid and a crater on the ground.

Not really a good day to be an enhanced scorpion Grimm, now, was it? Merlot should be thankful that he did not witness another one of his precious babies meet their demise, I bet he would have even dropped tears from the cybernetic eye of his.

With the last hostile dead and the target captured, it was safe to say the mission is complete. The only thing left to do was get off there, and I was getting sick of being in the facility for much longer.

"Good work, everyone. We've done everything we need to do. Let's go home." I announced at everyone after taking deep breath. Afterward, I contacted Ozpin to tell him that we've finished our mission, "Professor, the deed is finally done."

"Excellent work, students. I knew that you were able to handle this. You truly are worthy of being Huntsmen. Now make your way or the landing pad not far from your location. The Bullhead will take you back to Beacon. I'm very proud of you."

"Right ahead of you." I put my scroll down and helped Ren carry an unconscious Merlot out to the landing pad nearby.

It didn't take long for the Bullhead to arrive, it's because it was waiting somewhere about the island when they dropped off the rest of our teams. Ren and I got into the Bullhead and we put Merlot on a stretcher. The girls then caught up and hopped on in. The Bullhead then departed, taking us away from the island.

I finally sighed and sat down, still not believing that I was able to see the end of this mess. I'm finally able to relax now that I don't have to worry about this anymore.

"That was... awesome!" Ruby suddenly chirped up, surprising those who are trying to unwind after a long, arduous mission. "We get to fight Grimm that nobody has seen before and we don't have to study to pass the semester anymore!"

"Heck, yeah, sis! Nothing says 'best day ever' like fighting killer robots, evil scientists, and super-Grimm!" Yang pumped with her sister.

"At least you two had fun," Weiss said, probably grumbling about my journey with her, which I couldn't blame her for.

I'd say the reward was worth it, but this is something I would rather not go through again. Studying might have been less trouble than what I have just recently experienced.

"So, this is the infamous Doctor Merlot. I never thought I would meet him in the flesh like this." Blake remarked as she examined him on the stretcher in the middle of the Bullhead.

"What does he need the robot arm for? Looks to me that he just wasted a perfectly good arm." Yang said.

"Either he lost it at one point or he simply just wanted some cybernetics," Ren explained.

Cybernetic implants are cool and all, but if I learned something today then I found out that, they're not always better than normal arms as a single EMP can screw them up. Even if you use cybernetics to restore an amputated body part, you will still feel like there's something missing on your body. I don't think I'm going to saw off my own arm anytime soon, I like my body just the way it is.

A holographic screen emerged on the Bullhead's interiors, it shows Ozpin commending us for our efforts on the mission. "Students, I am glad you are able to make it with minimum casualties. It speaks volumes about what you are capable of. Don't worry about the island, the Atlesian Military will take care of the rest. Rest assure that you have completed your mission and that you have earned the extra credit that we promised you with."

That's good to hear. I would have hated being denied my reward just because I missed something. Now I'll be able to spend my days on the final exam taking a comfy, relaxing vacation away from Huntsmen responsibilities.

Ozpin continued, "That was certainly challenging, maybe not as challenging as dealing with Glynda's drunken rants during Teacher's Day, but very challenging nonetheless."

After everything I went through, I could not imagine what that would be like if it's as bad as he claimed it to be, especially since Ozpin himself sounds perturbed by it. Everyone is already scared of a sober Miss Goodwitch, thank Gods teachers are mostly forbidden to drink.

Pyrrha looked perplexed at Ozpin's remark. "I beg your pardon, Professor?"

"Oh, nothing. Carry on celebrating your success. You need after everything you have to go through. I'll see when you return. " the holo-screen then withdrew, and we went back to unwind ourselves from the adrenaline-rush of confronting Merlot and his pets.

Weiss suddenly approached and reminded me of an offer I made earlier, "So, are you still up for cake and tea?"

To be honest, I wasn't being serious when I said that and neither was I expecting her to accept it, but it works for me so I might as well take it. "Can't see why not."

We may not really be the best of friends, but we still try to give each other a chance and we may get along when we wanted to. Working together back at the island proved that. Our friends just need to get used seeing us in doing anything that isn't annoying or ignoring each other.

"Did a handsome knight in shining armor melted that cold heart of yours, Ice Queen?" Yang teased as she grins at us, with Ruby being just as amused while Blake doesn't know what to think of it.

Weiss rolled her eyes and turned to them. "Oh, don't you dare go there."

I giggled for a bit before looking at my teammates. Ren was just as disinterested as he always was and was busy lying, not caring; Nora was glaring at me as she doesn't seem to like me and Weiss going along, and Pyrrha seems to do her best to keep a straight face.

"Easy, now. It's all just friendly stuff. Just relax." I said to Nora to quell any negative thoughts and prevent her from starting unwanted fights on the Bullhead.

"It better be," Nora growled before turning to Pyrrha. "Right, Pyrrha?"

"Uh, yeah! Right..." she attempts to respond as she stammers.

I shrugged off everyone's antics and lied down as I wait for this ship to take me back to school. There were a lot of things I had to clear from my mind that it just forgot to make me feel nauseated during the flight. I just had to make a trip to Forever Fall to investigate some strange stuff and then finding myself shipped into an island filled with super-powered Grimm and killer robots that were led by an insane scientist with a fixation on evolving the Grimm evolution. Whoever is in charge of keeping watch on Merlot after this better do a great job on making sure he doesn't try anything clever again.

One thing that continued to bother me about that journey was Merlot mentioning someone by the name of 'Salem' who once stated that Remnant was better off living in chaos, and Ozpin and Dad seemingly knows about her and that I should ask him if I want to know more. I'll ask about it sometime, but not today. It might rub Ozpin the wrong way and I've already been through enough trouble that I just want some R&R. Maybe I should ask Dad instead, I obviously trust him far more than Ozpin. I'll bring it up once I'm ready.

Thank goodness this is all over. I can't believe I spent five hours on this crap.

**=o=**

  1. _Commissars are elite Huntsmen of the Council Commissar Corps (CCC). They are given special privileges and authorities by the Remnant Council to act above the law under the strict condition that they are to be used to uphold global stability._
  2. _For context_ , a _caravan containing supplies she bought due to a shortage of fabric was blocked by a Beringel that was terrorizing the trade route to Acadia. There were multiple attempts to dispatch the Beringel but they all failed, leading Viola to successfully take down the Beringel herself after becoming too impatient. She refuses the reward and simply took the supplies. She would later find her business has an increase in customers within the following day. It should be noted that Viola Arc did not attend any Huntsman academy, along half the Arc children._



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